Related papers: Geodesics and distance in classical physics
We present a general method which can be used for geometrical and physical interpretation of an arbitrary spacetime in four or any higher number of dimensions. It is based on the systematic analysis of relative motion of free test…
The geodesic motion of pseudo-classical spinning particles in Euclidean Taub-NUT space is analysed. The constants of motion are expressed in terms of Killing-Yano tensors. Some previous results from the literature are corrected.
Classical mechanics has a natural mathematical setting in symplectic geometry and it may be asked if the same is true for quantum mechanics. More precisely, is it possible to capture certain quantum idiosyncrasies within the symplectic…
Spin of elementary particles is the only kinematic degree of freedom not having classical corre- spondence. It arises when seeking for the finite-dimensional representations of the Lorentz group, which is the only symmetry group of…
A half-geodesic is a closed geodesic realizing the distance between any pair of its points. All geodesics in a round sphere are half-geodesics. Conversely, this note establishes that Riemannian spheres with all geodesics closed and…
In this paper a functional definition of geodesics is introduced which allows to generalize the notion of a geodesic from smooth to topological manifolds. It is shown that in the smooth case the new definition coincides with the classical…
In this paper we review a proposed geometrical formulation of quantum mechanics. We argue that this geometrization makes available mathematical methods from classical mechanics to the quantum frame work. We apply this formulation to the…
In the paper, some concepts of modern differential geometry are used as a basis to develop an invariant theory of mechanical systems, including systems with gyroscopic forces. An interpretation of systems with gyroscopic forces in the form…
An example of mechanical system whose configuration space is direct product of a curved space and the local group of rotations, is presented. The system is considered as a model of spinning particle moving in the space. The Hamiltonian…
The dynamics of extended spinning bodies in the Kerr spacetime is investigated in the pole-dipole particle approximation and under the assumption that the spin-curvature force only slightly deviates the particle from a geodesic path. The…
We suggest that the physically irrelevant choice of a representative worldline of a relativistic spinning particle should correspond to a gauge symmetry in an action approach. Using a canonical formalism in special relativity, we identify a…
The action principle is frequently used to derive the classical equations of motion. The action may also be used to associate group elements with curves in the space-time manifold, similar to the gauge transformations. The action principle…
The approach to incorporate quantum effects in gravity by replacing free particle geodesics with Bohmian non-geodesic trajectories has an equivalent description in terms of a conformally related geometry, where the motion is force free,…
A classic problem in general relativity, long studied by both physicists and philosophers of physics, concerns whether the geodesic principle may be derived from other principles of the theory, or must be posited independently. In a recent…
A possible model for quantum kinematics of a test particle in a curved space-time is proposed. Every reasonable neighbourhood V_e of a curved space-time can be equipped with a nonassociative binary operation called the geodesic…
We discuss canonical transformations relating well-known geodesic flows on the cotangent bundle of the sphere with a set of geodesic flows with quartic invariants. By adding various potentials to the corresponding geodesic Hamiltonians, we…
We propose to study the behavior of complicated numerical solutions to Einstein's equations for generic cosmologies by following the geodesic motion of a swarm of test particles. As an example, we consider a cylinder of test particles…
This study analyzes the geometrical relationship between a classical string and its semi-classical quantum model. From an arbitrary $(2+1)-$dimensional geometry, a specific ansatz for a classical string is used to generate a semi-classical…
In double field theory, the equation of motion for a point particle in the background field is considered. We find that the motion is described by a geodesic flow in the doubled geometry. Inspired by the analysis on the particle motion, we…
The geodesic has a fundamental role in physics and in mathematics: roughly speaking, it represents the curve that minimizes the arc length between two points on a manifold. We analyze a basic but misinterpreted difference between the…