Frenet-Serret formalism for null world lines
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
2015-06-22 v1
Abstract
The Frenet-Serret curve analysis is extended from nonnull to null trajectories in a generic spacetime using the Newman-Penrose formalism, recovering old results which are not well known and clarifying the associated Fermi-Walker transport which has been left largely unexplored in the literature. This machinery is then used to discuss null circular orbits in stationary axisymmetric spacetimes using the Kerr spacetime as a concrete example, and to integrate the equations of parallel transport along null geodesics in any spacetime.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1408.4281,
title = {Frenet-Serret formalism for null world lines},
author = {Donato Bini and Andrea Geralico and Robert T. Jantzen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1408.4281},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
20 pages, no figures; published version