Orbits and Paths in Schwarzschild Spacetime

Notes for GR-I - CCD

Geodesic Equations for Null and Time-Like paths

The paths of photons and time-like particles in the Schwarzschild spacetime dier from those of similar particles in Newtonian gravitation. We begin by writing the Schwarzschild line element in the usual spherical coordinate system: ds2 = 1 2m 2m dt2 1 r r
1

dr2 r2 (d2 + sin2 d2 )

(1)

The geodesics in this spacetime can be obtained by solving the Euler-Lagrange equations for the Lagrangian function based on this line element, which we take to be: L= 1 2m 2 2m t 1 r r
1

2 r2 sin2 2 r 2 r2

(2)

where the overdot indicates dierentiation with respect to the ane parameter, . Since this situation corresponds to the central-force situation in Newtonian gravity, it is reasonable to expect that each non-radial geodesic will be planar. In particular, suppose a segment of a geodesic starts at a specic position, moving in the direction dened by the tangent vector at that point. This starting point and the tangent vector dene a family of planes that include the point and have the tangent vector lying in them. From this family, a unique plane also includes the centre of the system at r = 0. Once this plane is established in this way, it is clear from a symmetry consideration that the geodesic will remain in this plane throughout its extent, for the world above the plane is identical to that below the plane. Having established that the geodesic is planar, we can now choose to orient our coor = 0. The dinate system so that this plane is dened by = /2, so that we also have Lagrangian then simplies to: 2m 2 2m L= 1 t 1 r r
1

2 r 2 r2

(3)

= r2 Since L/ = 0 we have directly from the Euler-Lagrange equations that L/ is constant, so that can write =B r2 (4)

c Charles C. Dyer

where B is a constant. Similarly, since L/t = 0, we have: 1 where A is another constant. 2m t=A r (5)

Photon paths
B2 2m 1 r2 r

We will rst consider the paths of photons, so that L = 0, and equation (3) yields: r 2 = A2 (6)

Since we are more interested in the shape of the photon path than knowing the ane parameter along the geodesic, it is useful to change from as the parameter along the geodesic to the angular coordinate . Now dr dr d B = = 2r d d d r where the prime represents dierentiation with respect to . We then have r
2 2B r4

(7)

B2 2m =A 2 1 r r
2

(8)

Inspection of this equation suggests that we introduce a new variable given by u = 1/r. With this change of variable, we have u 2 + u2 (1 2mu) = A B
2

(9)

This dierential equation can be integrated in terms of elliptic integrals, but for our purposes it is more useful to dierentiate this equation with respect to to yield u = 0 or u + u = 3mu2 (10)

The case u = 0 means that r is constant, so that the orbit is circular. This orbit will have u = 0 as well, so that u = 1/3m and thus r = 3m. This is the location of the photon sphere, where photons can circle the centre of symmetry indenitely. The case of prime interest is that where u + u = 3mu2 (11)

where the 3mu2 is the new term introduced by general relativity. To nd the deviation from the classical situation, we consider the equation without the 3mu2 term, where we will write this solution as uc , so that uc + uc = 0. The solution can be written in the form uc = 1 sin( 0 ) a 2 (12)

r r = m

classical ray deected ray r =0

Figure 1: Deection of light ray from classical ray. where is a is a constant. This represents a straight line with closest approach distance a, with the closest approach being at 0 = /2. To develop the solution of equation (11), we will replace the relativistic term 3mu2 by 3mu2 c , where 3mu = 3m/r is small provided the closest approach distance a is large compared to 3m. We then have u +u= 3m 2 sin ( 0 ) a2 (13)

This can be solved using a number of techniques, to yield u= 1 m sin( 0 ) + (1 + cos( 0 ))2 a a (14)

Provided that a >> m, it is clear that the second term is a small perturbation from the classical, straight line, photon path. It is convenient to choose 0 = 0 by an appropriate rotation and write the solution in the form m au = sin + (1 + cos )2 (15) a Setting = , we have directly that u = 0, so that r when . Since the classical path from = is a straight line with r for both and 0, we now take = where << 1. Imposing that r for = , in equation (15), we have m 0 = sin + (1 + cos )2 (16) a so that taking << 1 we have 0 + m (1 + 1)2 a (17)

We then nd that the photon path swings through the additional angle = 4m a (18)

For a light ray from a distant star just grazing the sun, the deection is about 1. 75. This eect is dicult to observe, since observation of stars when they lie very close to 3

the bright disk of the sun is dicult. A total solar eclipse of the sun by the moon does provide a situation where the observation is possible, since the moon obscures the bright visible disk of the sun. This observation was performed in 1919 by Sir Arthur Eddington and collaborators. Their results provided reasonable conrmation of the Einstein predicted deection angle. This was important because von Soldner had concluded in 1801 that based on Newtonian gravitation, and treating the light ray as that of a very small particle moving at the speed of light, there should be a deection angle of 2m/a, that is half the deection predicted by general relativity. Eddingtons result provided sucient precision to show that the Einstein result was the more correct result, thus providing early experimental support for the then new theory of general relativity.

Modied Keplerian Orbits

We now turn to the case of a time-like geodesic in the Schwarzschild vacuum space-time, with particular interest in changes in planetary orbits relative to the classical Keplerian orbits that arise in Newtonian gravity. Returning to equation (3), but setting L = 1 rather equations are unchanged, and using the same change of and than L = 0, noting that t variable u = 1/r, we now have the equation for u: B 2 u 2 + B 2 u2 (1 2mu) A2 = (1 2mu) (19)

As in the light ray case, this equation could be integrated using elliptic integrals, but we will again try to nd the changes from the classical Keplerian orbit, and to that end, we will dierentiate with respect to , to obtain u +u= m + 3mu2 2 B (20)

We note that there is again the additional term 3mu2 beyond the classical equation. Taking uc to be the classical results satisfying the equation uc + uc = m B2 (21)

we have the Keplerian or Newtonian orbit given by uc = m (1 + cos ) B2 (22)

This represents an orbit that is a conic section of eccentricity . The second constant of integration was eliminated by choosing the origin of the azimuthal coordinate, , appropriately. For = 0 we have 1 B2 1 rc = = (23) uc m 1+ and for = , we have 1 B2 1 rc = = (24) uc m 1 4

so that the length of the semi-major axis, one half the sum of these two values, is a= B2 1 m 1
2

(25)

In a manner similar to that used for the photon paths, we now use uc in the postNewtonian term in equation (20), so that to this level of precision, we have u +u=
2

m m2 1 + 3 1 + 2 cos + B2 B2

cos2

(26)

Provided that m << 1, the second term is always a small perturbation relative to the B2 classical term. Consider the classical orbit which we have seen can be written as m 1 = 2 (1 + cos ) rc B and multiply by m to obtain m m2 = 2 (1 + cos ) rc B
m2 B2

(27)

(28) << 1 as well.

Provided that m/rc << 1 throughout the orbit, it then follows that We can now write the solution to equation (26) as m2 m u = 2 1 + cos + 3 2 1 + sin + B B
2 1 2

1 cos 2 6

(29)

In the perturbation term, all terms are bounded, being constants or simple trigonometric functions, except for the secular term, sin , which can grow large because of the factor of . Thus the perturbation away from the classical Keplerian orbit will be dominated by the secular term, and we can write the eective solution for the orbit as u= Noting that m2 cos 1 3 2 B and that for
m2 B2

m m2 1 + cos + 3 sin B2 B2

(30)

m2 m2 = cos cos 3 2 + sin sin 3 2 B B

(31)

<< 1, we have cos 3 m2 1 and B2 m2 B2 sin 3 m2 m2 3 B2 B2 m2 sin B2 (32)

we then have cos 1 3

cos + 3

(33)

a(1 )

a(1 + )

Figure 2: Perihelion advance for near Keplerian orbit. Finally, we have the perturbed orbit u= m m2 1 + cos 1 3 B2 B2 + (34)

The post-Newtonian orbit appears very similar to the Keplerian orbit, except that while the original orbit repeats after goes from 0 to 2 , the perturbed orbit repeats after (1 3m2 /B 2 ) goes from 0 to 2 . Thus the major axis of the orbit advances by the amount m2 = 6 2 (35) B per orbit. Using equation (25) convert this into a form using more familiar orbital parameters, the major axis appears to advance an amount = 6m a(1 2 ) (36)

per orbit, where a is the semi-major axis of the orbit. This eect is observable in the solar system for the planet Mercury, whose perihelion was known to advance about 43 per century over and above already known Newtonian gravitational eects caused by perturbations from other planets in the solar system. The post-Keplerian eect discussed here, when evaluated for Mercurys orbit, amounts to about 0. 1 per orbit, and since the orbital period is about 0.24 years, this amounts to about 43 per century.

Fermats Principle and Light Travel Time

In classical physics, a very useful method of tracing light rays is to consider the time that an observer would measure for the passage of light from one spatial location to another. Fermats Principle states that the path taken will be the one that minimizes the apparent 6

light travel time. While we understand that the time that a photon takes to travel between locations is not dened in the frame of the photon, we can consider the time that the observer measures between the emission of the photon and its reception some distance away. We will take the gravitational eld to be static, and thus impose the conditions gab|0 = 0 and g0 = 0 where the spacetime coordinates are xa with a = 0, 1, 2, 3, where x0 = t is the time coordinate and x are the spatial coordinates with = 1, 2, 3. The Christoel symbols become
0 0 00 = = 0 = 0 1 00 = 2 g g00| 1 00 1 0 0 = 2 g g00| = 2 (ln g00 )|

(37) (38) (39)

1 g| + g | g | = 2 g

The geodesic equation for x0 = t is + 0 t bx c = 0 bc x (40)

where the overdot again indicates the derivative with respect to the ane parameter, . Expanding the double sum into time and space parts, and using the properties of the Christoel symbols given above, we have + (ln g00 )| x =0 t t The geodesic equations for x are x + b x c = 0 bc x Again expanding the double sum, we have 2 x + x + x 00 t = 0 (43) (42) (41)

We now change from using as the parameter along the null geodesic to using the time coordinate, t, along the geodesic. Re-writing the derivative x , etc., we then have
d2 x 2 dx dx dx 2 2 t + t + t + 00 t = 0 dt2 dt dt dt

(44)

We can re-write equation (41) to give

= (ln g00 )| dx t 2 t dt

(45)

so that we then have

dx dx d 2 x dx dx + (ln g ) + 00 | 00 = 0 dt2 dt dt dt dt

(46)

The null property of the geodesic requires that g00 dt2 + g dx dx = 0, so that on dening the spatial metric as = g /g00 , we have dt2 = dx dx along the ray. We can then write equation (46) in the form d2 x dx dx + =0 dt2 dt dt where = 1 | + | | 2 (47)

(48)

is the spatial Christoel corresponding to the spatial metric . These are just the EulerLagrange equations to extremize the length of the photon path in the 3-space, where dt2 = dx dx gives the square of that length along the ray. Thus we have shown that the null geodesic in the spacetime corresponds to the path having the shortest (or longest) length in terms of the elapsed time measured by the observer at rest in the spatial geometry. This corresponds directly to Fermats Principle of least travel time for the photon moving along the ray, as measured by the observer at rest in the spatial section.