Solving Schwarzschild Field Equations in this Form

Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
3 replies · 1K views
bolbteppa
Messages
300
Reaction score
41
Applying Cartan's first and second structural equations to the vielbein forms
\begin{align}
e^t = A(r) dt , \ \ \ \ \ e^r = B(r) dr , \ \ \ \ \ e^{\theta} = C(r) d \theta , \ \ \ \ \ e^{\phi} = C(r) \sin \theta d \phi ,
\end{align}
taken from the metric
\begin{align}
ds^2 = A^2(r) dt^2 - B^2(r) dr^2 - C^2(r) d \theta^2 - C^2(r) \sin^2 (\theta) d \phi^2 , \ \ \ \ C(r) = r,
\end{align}
we end up with the Ricci curvature in the form
\begin{align}
R^t \, _t &= - \frac{1}{B^2}[\frac{A''}{A} - \frac{A'B'}{AB} + 2 \frac{A'}{Ar}] \\
R^r \, _r &= - \frac{1}{B^2}[\frac{A''}{A} - \frac{A'B'}{AB} - 2\frac{B'}{Br}] \\
R^{\theta} \, _{\theta} &= - \frac{1}{B^2}[- \frac{B'}{rB} + \frac{A'}{Ar} + \frac{1}{r^2}] + \frac{1}{r^2}= R^{\phi} \, _{\phi}.
\end{align}
This is the result in Zee's gravity, page 611, and at around 46 mins in this video (on setting ##C = r##).

My question is solving the equation
\begin{align}
R_{\mu \nu} = 0
\end{align}
with the Ricci curvature in this form to find the Schwarzschild line element, noting the curvature is a bit different from the usual form. By subtracting ##R^r \, _r## from ##R^t \, _t## we find
\begin{align}
\frac{A'}{A} + \frac{B'}{B} = 0,
\end{align}
but now using this in the ##R^{\theta} \, _{\theta}## curvature term, we get
\begin{align}
0 &= - \frac{1}{B^2}[- \frac{B'}{rB} + \frac{A'}{Ar} + \frac{1}{r^2}] + \frac{1}{r^2} \\
&= - \frac{1}{B^2}[- \frac{B'}{rB} - \frac{B'}{Br} + \frac{1}{r^2}] + \frac{1}{r^2} \\
&= - \frac{1}{B^2}[- 2 \frac{B'}{rB} + \frac{1}{r^2}] + \frac{1}{r^2} \\
&= \frac{1}{B^2}[2r \frac{B'}{B} - 1] + 1 \\
&= 2r \frac{B'}{B} - 1 + B^2 \\
&= 2rB' - B + B^3
\end{align}
which does not reduce to a total derivative (as it usually should) allowing us to solve the equations.

What has gone wrong and how does one solve the equations in this form?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
In the link that you call the usual form the equations is ##R_{\theta\theta}=0##, here you are looking at ##R^\theta_{\;\;\theta}=0##.