- #1
hamjam9
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I've been wracking my brains trying to answer this but it's just really hard. If some one could help me out I would really appreciate it. Thank you so much in advanced!
Consider the family of hypersurfaces where each member is defined by the constancy of the function S(xc) over that hypersurface and further require that each hypersurface be a null hypersurface in the sense that its normal vector field, na = S|a be a null vector field.
Let ¡ be a member of the family of curves that pierces each such hypersurface orthogonally, meaning that the tangent vector to ¡, say ka is everywhere collinear with the vector na at the point of piercing. Show that ¡ is a null geodesic and find the condition on the relation between na and ka that allows the geodesic equation to be written in the simple form ka||bkb = 0.
Interpret your results in terms of waves and rays.
Where |a denotes partial derivative with respect to a, and ||a denotes the covariant derivative with respect to a.
Consider the family of hypersurfaces where each member is defined by the constancy of the function S(xc) over that hypersurface and further require that each hypersurface be a null hypersurface in the sense that its normal vector field, na = S|a be a null vector field.
Let ¡ be a member of the family of curves that pierces each such hypersurface orthogonally, meaning that the tangent vector to ¡, say ka is everywhere collinear with the vector na at the point of piercing. Show that ¡ is a null geodesic and find the condition on the relation between na and ka that allows the geodesic equation to be written in the simple form ka||bkb = 0.
Interpret your results in terms of waves and rays.
Where |a denotes partial derivative with respect to a, and ||a denotes the covariant derivative with respect to a.