Relativity and

the Equivalence Principle

Kostas Glampedakis

Academic year 2014-15 (winter semester)

 Outline of this lecture
• We introduce and discuss the Equivalence Principle which is a foundational
principle of the General Relativity theory.

• The EP is stated in various versions and is related to the notion of free fall
in a gravitational field, the geodesics of curved spacetime and how the laws
of physics are perceived by different observers.

• Towards formulating the EP we discuss the notion of inertial frames,

Galilean relativity, Lorentz invariance and fictitious inertial forces.

• We will see how the notion of an inertial frame becomes local and discuss
the general Relativity Principle and the Principle of general covariance.

• Finally, we discuss two important physical consequences of the EP:

bending of light and gravitational frequency shift.
 Reference frames & Observers
• The statement “a body is moving” is meaningful only when a coordinate
system has been specified. Then, a change in the body’s position means that
its coordinates change.

• The notion of a reference frame is synonymous with a coordinate system.

We can also simply identify a reference frame with an observer.

• The key question is this:

Are the laws of physics the same for different observers?

✓For reference frames related by simple spatial translations and rotations the
answer is trivially “yes”.

✓ However, for observers in relative motion the answer is far from clear.
 Inertial frames
• Inertial frames (or inertial observers) are those reference frames that
are in state of constant rectilinear motion with respect to one another.
These frames are not accelerating.

• In an inertial frame, Newton’s first law (the law of inertia) is satisfied:

a freely moving body has a constant velocity.

• We could also say that in an inertial frame the laws of mechanics take their
simplest form.

• The Relativity Principle:

the laws of physics take the same form in all inertial frames.

• Based on the above, one can eventually arrive at the Lorentz transformation
and the theory of Special Relativity!
 Galilean invariance
• We know that the laws of Newtonian mechanics remain invariant between
inertial frames (assuming velocity-independent forces). Newton’s laws do
not change under the Galilean spacetime transformation:
0 0
t = t + constant, x =x vt
(the unprimed/primed coordinates refer to the inertial frames F/F´)

F F´
v

• This is the statement of the Galilean principle of relativity. This principle

entails a relativity of velocity.

• In non-inertial (=accelerating) frames Newtonian dynamics is modified by

the introduction of “ficticious” inertial forces (e.g. the centrifugal force).
 Lorentz invariance
• On the other hand, the laws of electromagnetism are not Galilean-invariant
(the speed of light c is the same for all inertial observers).

• They are the same in all inertial frames provided that the transformation
between them is the Lorentz spacetime transformation:
0 2 0 2
x = (x vt) ( 1)[x (x · v)v/v ], t = (t x · v/c )
2 2 1/2
where = 1 v /c
• Lorentz invariance again implies a relativity of velocity, but leaves
acceleration as an absolute quantity. Newton’s laws are still valid but we
must now use 4-vectors, a body’s proper time τ and the notion of Minkowski
spacetime:
m↵µ = F µ , ↵µ = d2 xµ /d⌧ 2

ds2 = c2 d⌧ 2 = c2 dt2 + dx · dx = invariant

 The special nature of gravity
• In defining an inertial frame one has to look for a force-free situation
(so that Newton’s first law is valid).

• This is easy to achieve in the case of electromagnetic forces: one simply has
to choose bodies with no charge (or any other higher electromagnetic
moment). This can be seen from the Coulomb law formula:

Qq q Q
F = 2 a=
r m r2
• In the case of the gravitational field this is not possible since all bodies are
affected by gravity. Moreover, the corresponding gravitational acceleration
is independent of mass. Therefore it cannot be eliminated by letting the
mass go to zero.
GM m GM
F = a= 2
r2 r
Galileo’s free fall experiment for gravity
and electromagnetism
 Newton’s equivalence principle
• At this point we need to clarify the difference between different kinds of
mass. The equation of motion for a body with inertial mass mi in a
gravitational field described by a potential Φ(x,t) is:

mi ẍ = mg r
where x(t) is the body’s position at time t and mg is the body’s
gravitational mass (which can be thought as a gravitational “charge”).

• In principle, the two masses mi , mg express completely different properties

and we would expect them to be distinct.

• Newton’s equivalence principle: mi = mg

• The equality of the two kinds of mass has been verified experimentally
to a very high precision!
 Universality of free fall

mi = mg , free fall motion is universal

• The universality of free fall is usually called Galileo’s principle:

In a given gravitational field the path in space and time of a test body is
fully determined by its initial position and velocity. In particular, the path
is independent of the body’s mass and composition ( a “test body” is a body
with a negligible effect on the background gravitational field )

• In other words, the motion is fully described by:

ẍ = g = r x0 = x(t = 0), v0 = ẋ(t = 0)

• In Newtonian theory the universality of free fall (or the equality of inertial
and gravitational mass) is taken as an axiom, without additional insight.
 Gravity as Geometry: geodesics
• Contemplating the mystery of Galileo’s principle, one could suggest:
A property of curved spacetime,
universality of free fall
rather than a property of mass

• At the same time we know from differential geometry that a surface, or a

more general n-dimensional space, has one natural set of “rails”: the
geodesics.

• These are the straightest paths; moreover there is a unique geodesic at a

point and at a given direction.

✓The uniqueness of geodesics is a property

of the four-dimensional spacetime, not of the
three-dimensional space (see figure).
 The Weak Equivalence Principle
• In the theory of General Relativity one abandons the notion of a gravitational
force. Instead the notion of a curved spacetime is used.
M
m
The interaction between a big mass M and a
small body of mass m is described as the
motion of m in the spacetime curved by M.

• The motion of m is independent of its mass and composition because it

follows the geodesic “rails” of the curved spacetime.

• Galileo’s principle of the universality of free fall is now called the weak
equivalence principle and makes no reference to mi , mg .

WEP: The motion of (non-rotating) test bodies with negligible

self-gravity is independent of their properties
 Inertial forces
• We have already mentioned that Newton’s laws are modified in a accelerating
(non-inertial) reference frame.

• For example, in a frame rotating with angular velocity Ω Newton’s 2nd law is
modified by the inclusion of the centrifugal and Coriolis inertial forces:

In F (inertial frame): ma = F
0
In F´(non-inertial frame): ma = F + Finertial

Finertial = m [ 2⌦ ⇥ v0 ⌦ ⇥ (⌦ ⇥ x0 ) ]

• These forces are “fictitious” in the sense that they appear due to the fact that
we are in a non-inertial frame. The key property of all inertial forces is that
they are always proportional to the body’s mass. This is also a property of the
gravitational force.
• Is there a connection between these two kinds of force?
 Apparent gravitational fields
• Consider a static homogeneous gravitational field (as would be Earth’s field
when observed over sufficiently small regions). In this field a body of mass m
would feel a gravitational force:

GM m
Fgrav = 2
ẑ = mgẑ
R

• Next, consider a region without gravity and in it

an elevator (our laboratory!) moving with
acceleration a = aẑ . In the reference frame of
the elevator a body would feel an inertial force:
Finertial = maẑ
• The accelerating observer would see an apparent
gravitational field with g = a = aẑ.

• If a = g the accelerating frame is equivalent to

the static homogeneous gravitational field.
 The Equivalence Principle
• Having established the equivalence between inertial forces and homogeneous
gravitational fields, we consider a freely falling elevator in a static homogene-
ous gravitational field. This is Einstein’s famous elevator thought experiment.

• The elevator’s frame has acceleration a = g and Newton’s 2nd law becomes:

mẍ0 = Fgrav + Finertial = m( g + a) = 0

• Gravity has been effectively “cancelled” g
and the freely falling frame has become
an inertial frame!
• This equivalence between inertial and
gravitational forces is encapsulated in
Einstein’s Equivalence Principle.

EP: A state of rest in homogeneous gravitational field is physcially

equivalent to a state of uniform acceleration in gravity-free space.
 Einstein’s elevator in action!

NASA’s “zero-gravity” astronaut training in a “freely falling” airplane

 Local inertial frames
• The equivalence of a freely falling frame with an inertial frame is a
local notion.

• This is because gravitational fields are never completely homogeneous.

Imagining a large freely falling Einstein elevator, two free bodies in it (as
in the figure) will be observed to approach each other. The inertial forces
cannot completely eliminate an inhomogeneous gravitational field.

• In this sense, we can now distinguish Freely falling

between apparent gravitational fields frame
(these are the homogeneous ones) and
true gravitational fields (these cannot
be completely cancelled by inertial forces).

Earth
 Curvature & local flatness
• In General Relativity the gravitational field is represented by a curved
spacetime with metric g↵ . The criterion for the presence of gravity at a given
point is a non-zero curvature at that point. The spacetime curvature is
encoded in the Riemann tensor R↵ (this is the generalization of the more
familiar Gaussian curvature K of two-dimensional surfaces).
R↵ 6= 0 () gravitational field
• Homogeneous gravitational fields have R↵ = 0 , this also implies that
such a field is not “true”.
• As known from differential geometry the local neighborhood of point on a
curved surface can be approximated by a plane. In a similar way a curved
spacetime can be locally approximated by a flat spacetime (i.e. the Minkowski
metric of Special Relativity), that is, locally we can set g↵ = ⌘↵ , g↵ , = 0 .

• This local inertial frame is the frame of a freely falling observer at the given
spacetime point (i.e. an Einstein elevator).
 The Strong Equivalence Principle
• The existence of local inertial frames in a gravitational field forms the basis
of Einstein’s Strong Equivalence Principle:

SEP: Locally and at any point of spacetime physics is that of

special relativity (Lorentz invariant) and is not affected by the
presence of a gravitational field.

• We can quantify the notion of “locally”: the spatial size D of the local inertial
frame is much smaller that the typical lengthscale L of the gravitational
field, R↵ ⇠ 1/L2 . Hence, in a region D << L the field is almost
homogeneous and can be “cancelled” by inertial forces.

• The SEP implies the WEP: the behavior of freely falling test-bodies in a
gravitational field is locally (i.e. in a local inertial frame) indistinguishable
from that of a free body. Since the latter is universal, also freely falling bodies
should behave in a universal way.
 The general Relativity Principle
• The SEP has been confirmed experimentally to a very high precision.

• The identification of gravity with curved spacetime has led us to a new

definition of an inertial frame: it is the local freely falling frame. This
definition replaces the global inertial frames of non-gravitational physics
(but includes them as a limiting case for a flat spacetime R↵ = 0 ).

• An observer in this local frame does not see a gravitational field and therefore
can find himself in a force-free situation (up to a certain precision).

• These newly defined inertial frames are, in general, accelerated with respect
to each other (whereas in Special Relativity inertial frames move with constant
velocity with respect to each other).

• According to the SEP, in all these local inertial frames the laws of physics are
the same. This is the general Relativity Principle.
 Physics is the same for all observers
• General relativity goes beyond the general Relativity Principle and requires
that the laws of physics are the same relative to all frames (=all observers),
not just relative to the inertial frames.

• This is accomplished by formulating all physical laws in a tensorial form.

• The equivalence of all observers with respect to physical laws is called the
principle of general covariance.

• An example of the covariant (=tensorial) way of writing equations is the

expression for geodesic motion (free fall):
2 µ µ
⌫ µ d x µ dx
u r⌫ u = 2
+ ↵ u↵ u = 0, uµ =
d⌧ d⌧
µ 1 µ
↵ = g [g ,↵ + g↵ , g↵ , ]
2
 Applications of the Equivalence Principle
• There are two very important physical effects that follow directly from the
EP without making any reference to the equations of General Relativity.

Bending of light
Equivalence Principle =) &
Gravitational frequency shift

• Both effects can be revealed by using Einstein’s elevator thought

experiment and are discussed in the following slides.
 Bending of light by gravity
• Consider an Einstein elevator initially at rest in a gravity-free region.
A light ray is seen to propagate along a straight line (the elevator is an
inertial frame).

• Subsequently the elevator is accelerated upwards as

in figure (a). Due to the relative motion between the
light beam and the elevator, the trajectory would bend
downwards. Relative to the initial inertial frame,
light still propagates along a straight line.

• According to the EP, the accelerated frame is

indistinguishable from a homogeneous gravity field.

• Therefore, relative to an observer at rest in a

homogeneous gravitational field, the light beam
is deflected downwards. Gravity attracts light!
 Bending of light: rigorous analysis (I)
• Consider a light ray propagating in a curved spacetime.
At a point P along its path we set up a local frame F´ with
coordinates (t0 , x0 , y 0 , z 0 ) . At the same point P we also have z´
z
a freely falling frame F with coordinates (t, x, y, z),
momentarily at rest with respect to F´. P
x´
y´
• The two sets of coordinates are related as: x y
x0 = x
y0 = y
0 1 2 light ray’s
z =z gt worldline
2
( g = gravitational acceleration at P as seen in F´ )

• F is a local inertial frame: relative to it the light path is a straight line at

angle θ with respect to the horizontal x-axis:
x = ct cos ✓ z = ct sin ✓
 Bending of light: rigorous analysis (II)
• The trajectory of light as seen in F´is not a straight line:

g x02 z´
z 0 (x0 ) = x0 tan ✓ 2 2
+ O(x 03
) z
2c cos ✓
x´ P
0 0 0 0 y´
• The curvature of this trajectory at P, (t , x , y , z ) = x y
(0,0,0,0), can be calculated with the help of the familiar
formula:
d2 z 0 /dx02 g light ray’s
= = cos ✓ worldline
0 0
[1 + (dz /dx ) ] 2 3/2 c 2

• This result is exact.

 Gravitational frequency shift
• We again consider an Einstein elevator (inertial frame F )
and at the moment it is released to a free fall we let a t=0
light beam enter through the ceiling.
• The light will reach the floor after a time
L
t = + O(v/c) F
c
at which time F is moving with velocity ( g is the L
local gravitational acceleration) vF = g t .

• In F the frequency of the light ⌫ remains unaltered. t+ t F´

However, relative to F the observer F´(who is at rest
in the gravitational field) moves with velocity vF
towards the light beam. From the usual Doppler
vF = gt
formula:
⌫ vF gL blueshift (redshift) for light
= = 2 propagating downwards (upwards)
⌫ c c
 Epilogue: EP & Quantum physics

• This can be considered as the “homework” part of the lecture.

• So far we have discussed the Equivalence Principle as an essential part of

classical (i.e. non-quantum) physics.

• After having been exposed to the various versions and meanings of the
EP, you are asked to speculate on its compatibility with quantum
mechanics.
 Quantum Galileo free fall experiment
• An quantum particle (e.g. an electron) is dropped together with a
“classical” particle. Do they fall together? Is the path of the quantum
particle independent of its mass? (hint: use the uncertainty principle)

e
 The non-inertial Schrödinger equation
• The Schrödinger equation for a free particle of mass m in an inertial frame
is:
@ ~2 2
i~ = r
@t 2m

• Next, transform this to a uniformly accelerated frame (assume an

acceleration a = gẑ along the vertical z-axis).

• Compare the result against the Schrödinger equation in a homogeneous

gravitational field g = gẑ :
@ ~2 2
i~ = r + mgz
@t 2m

• Is the Equivalence Principle satisfied?