A Space & astronomy forum. SpaceBanter.com

Go Back   Home » SpaceBanter.com forum » Astronomy and Astrophysics » Astronomy Misc
Site Map Home Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Citaton wanted - curves of constant cosmological time can't be geodesics



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old August 24th 06, 09:25 AM posted to sci.astro
[email protected]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1
Default Citaton wanted - curves of constant cosmological time can't be geodesics

From:spamme606 aka 'pervect' on physicsforums

I'm looking for a citation for the fact that a curve of constant
cosmological time, such as the curve of constant cosmological time
whose length defines the comoving distance between two points, is not a
geodesic.

Thus the comvoing distance is not measured along a geodesic curve.

This is reasonbly obvious if one writes the metric

dt^2 - a(t)^2 dx^2

and the corresponding geodesic equations

d^2 t / d tau^2 + a da/dt (dx/d tau)^2 = 0
d^2 x / d tau^2 + (2/a) ( da/dt ) (dx / d tau) (dt / dtau) = 0

A curve of constant time has d^2 t / dtau^2 = 0. Given a(t)0 and an
expanding universe da/dt0, the only solution is (dx / d tau) = 0,
which is a point, not a curve.

Since this will eventually wind up in a Wikipedia article, it won't
necessarily be obvious to the casual reader, and I think it would be
classifiable as "original research" :-(.

Therfore I would like, if possible, a citation to the literature which
points out this fact.

For my own info, I would also like to know if there is any standard
distance measure in cosmology which defines the "distance" between two
points along the geodesic curve connecting them, rather than a
coordinate-based defintion of a curve of constant cosmological time.
So far I haven't run accross any such defintion in my search of what
textbooks I could find.

 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Complete Collection of Ideas [email protected] Space Shuttle 0 April 27th 06 07:44 PM
Complete Collection of Ideas [email protected] Astronomy Misc 0 April 27th 06 07:39 PM
The SRians Said: Time is What the Clock Measures kenseto Astronomy Misc 238 June 12th 05 01:29 PM
CRACK THIS CODE!!! NASA CAN'T zetasum Space Shuttle 0 February 3rd 05 12:27 AM
Mind-2, Time waves and Theory of Everything Yoda Misc 0 April 20th 04 06:11 AM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 05:55 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2025 SpaceBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.