English

Geodesic equation in noncommutative space: a field theory perspective

High Energy Physics - Theory 2026-02-27 v1 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

We derive the geodesic equation for point particles propagating in Moyal-type noncommutative spacetimes using a field-theoretic approach based on the quasi-classical limit of the noncommutative Klein-Gordon equation. Starting from a twisted-geometric construction of the covariant Laplace-Beltrami operator, we obtain the noncommutative Hamilton-Jacobi equation and show that all noncommutative effects are absorbed into an effective, position-dependent mass function M(x)M(x) appearing in an otherwise standard relativistic dispersion relation. The corresponding particle dynamics then acquires an additional term in the geodesic equation that takes the form of a fixed external force FNCμ=12gμννM2(x)F_{\text{NC}}^\mu = -\frac{1}{2} g^{\mu\nu}\partial_\nu M^2(x), sourced entirely by the quantum nature of spacetime. We compute this effective mass perturbatively up to fourth order in the noncommutativity parameter for a general metric, proving that all odd-order corrections vanish identically. For the specific case of an (rθ)(r-\theta) twist applied to spherically symmetric backgrounds, we obtain explicit expressions demonstrating that the leading correction to geodesic motion appears at Θ2\Theta^2 order and is proportional to the probe particle's mass, while massless particles remain unaffected.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.22726,
  title  = {Geodesic equation in noncommutative space: a field theory perspective},
  author = {Carolina Matté Gregory and Tajron Jurić and Aleksandr Pinzul},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.22726},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

16 pages

R2 v1 2026-07-01T10:53:28.643Z