Class 6: Curved Space and Metrics

In this class we will discuss the meaning of

spatial curvature, how distances in a curved
space can be measured using a metric, and how
this is connected to gravity
Class 6: Curved Space and Metrics
At the end of this session you should be able to …
• … describe the geometrical properties of curved spaces
compared to flat spaces, and how observers can determine
whether or not their space is curved

• … know how the metric of a space is defined, and how the

metric can be used to compute distances and areas

• ... make the connection between space-time curvature and

gravity

• … apply the space-time metric for Special Relativity and

General Relativity to determine proper times and distances
 Properties of curved spaces
• In the last Class we discussed that, according to the
Equivalence Principle, objects “move in straight lines in a
curved space-time”, in the presence of a gravitational field

• So, what is a straight line on a curved surface? We can

define it as the shortest distance between 2 points, which
mathematicians call a geodesic

https://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/teaching/HPS_0410/chapters/non_Euclid_curved/index.html
https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-reasons-that-flight-paths-especially-for-long-haul-flights-are-seen-as-curves-rather-than-straight-lines-on-a-
screen-Is-map-distortion-the-only-reason-Or-do-flight-paths-consider-the-rotation-of-the-Earth
 Properties of curved spaces
Equivalently, a geodesic is a path that would be travelled by
an ant walking straight ahead on the surface!

• Consider two ants starting

from different points on the
Equator, both walking North

• These geodesics are both

“straight lines”, but they are
converging

http://astronomy.nmsu.edu/geas/lectures/lecture28/slide03.html
• Parallel lines converge or
diverge on a curved surface
 Properties of curved spaces
Some other counter-intuitive properties of curved surfaces:
• The circumference of a circle of radius 𝑟 is not 2𝜋𝑟
• The area of a circle of radius 𝑟 is not 𝜋𝑟 $
• The angles of a triangle do not add up to 180°

http://people.virginia.edu/~dmw8f/astr5630/Topic16/t16_circumference.html http://moziru.com/explore/Drawn%20triangle%20sphere/
 Properties of curved spaces
• It’s easy to visualize curvature by thinking of a 2D curved
surface embedded in a 3D Euclidean space
• However, curvature is intrinsic to a surface and can be
determined without external reference – Earth dwellers
can know the Earth is curved without seeing it from space!
 Properties of curved spaces
• Zooming into a small region, a curved surface is locally flat
(just as a page of an atlas represents a piece of the globe)

It’s analogous to calculus,

where we build curves out
of straight lines …

https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/March05/Guth/Guth1.html http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/CalcII/ArcLength.aspx
 Curvature and gravity
• What has this got to do with gravity?
• Gravity can be represented as the curvature of space-time
• Objects travel on a geodesic in the curved space-time, that
extremizes the space-time interval between the two points
 Curvature and gravity
• Other forces cause particles to deviate from geodesics –
e.g., if 2 ants on a curved surface are connected by a solid
bar, the force would push them off their geodesics

• Just as a curved surface is locally flat, a curved space-time

can locally be described by an inertial frame (of a freely-
falling observer), but there is no extended inertial frame
 The metric of a space
• How do we measure lengths and angles in a Cartesian
space with co-ordinates (𝒙, 𝒚)?

• Breaking the arc into small pieces: 𝑑𝑠 $ = 𝑑𝑥 $ + 𝑑𝑦 $

8 $ $
𝑑𝑥 𝑑𝑦 𝜆 parameterizes the
𝑠=4 + 𝑑𝜆 curve [i.e., 𝑥(𝜆), 𝑦(𝜆)]
9 𝑑𝜆 𝑑𝜆
 The metric of a space
• What happens in a tilted co-ordinate system?

𝑦 𝑑𝑠 $ = 𝑑𝑥 $ + 𝑑𝑦 $ − 2 𝑑𝑥 𝑑𝑦 cos 𝜃

= G G 𝑔HI 𝑑𝑥 H 𝑑𝑥 I
𝑑𝑠
𝑑𝑦 H I

𝑑𝑥 where 𝑖 = 1,2 , 𝑥 (A) = 𝑥, 𝑥 ($) = 𝑦

𝜃
𝑥

• Using the summation convention, this can be written as

𝒅𝒔𝟐 = 𝒈𝒊𝒋 𝒅𝒙𝒊 𝒅𝒙𝒋 where 𝒈𝒊𝒋 is the metric of the space

• In this case, 𝑔AA = 1, 𝑔$$ = 1, 𝑔A$ = 𝑔$A = − cos 𝜃

 The metric of a space
• This example shows that the metric determines the
geometry, but the geometry does not determine the metric
• For a given geometry, we can generate many possible
metrics through co-ordinate transformations

For example – Cartesian

and polar co-ordinates

• The metric encodes information about both the geometry

and the co-ordinate system
 How do we define curvature?
• How can observers on a surface quantify the amount of
curvature at a point?

https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question35.html

• Move a geodesic distance 𝜀 in all directions to form a

“circle” in the space and measure its area 𝐴
A$ 9
• The curvature at a point is then lim 1−
P→R P S TP S
 The space-time metric
• The metric of space-time tell us how to measure the space-
time interval between events (i.e., proper times/distances)
−1 0 0 0
• Special Relativity: 𝑑𝑠 $ = 𝜂VW 𝑑𝑥 V 𝑑𝑥 W where 𝜂VW = 0 1
0 0
0
1
0
0
0 0 0 1

• Note that this geometry is not Euclidean because 𝜂RR = −1

(the locus of events separated by constant 𝑑𝑠 is a hyperbola,
not a circle) – it is known as a “Minkowski geometry”

• In General Relativity, in a frame containing a gravitational field

with curved space-time, 𝑑𝑠 $ = 𝑔VW 𝑑𝑥 V 𝑑𝑥 W where 𝑔VW is the
space-time metric – a more complicated function of 𝑥 V
 The space-time metric
𝑑𝑠 $ = 𝑔VW 𝑑𝑥 V 𝑑𝑥 W

• What is the structure of this function 𝑔VW ? It’s a matrix,

where each element is a function of the co-ordinates 𝑥 V

• 𝜇 and 𝜈 run over 4 indices but, from the above equation, the
metric must be symmetric (𝑔VW = 𝑔WV ), so there are 10
functions in general – this is why GR is complicated!!
 The space-time metric
• Consider a clock at rest in the Earth’s 𝑑𝑠 $ = 𝑔VW 𝑑𝑥 V 𝑑𝑥 W
frame, which ticks every 𝑑𝑡 seconds. Is
this a proper time interval 𝑑𝜏?
• No, because the clock is not in an inertial
frame (it is not freely falling)
• The space-time interval between the ticks
is 𝑑𝑠 $ = 𝑔RR 𝑥 H 𝑐 𝑑𝑡 $ , since 𝑑𝑥 H = 0

• Since 𝑑𝑠 $ = −𝑐 $ 𝑑𝜏 $ , the proper time

interval is 𝒅𝝉 = −𝒈𝟎𝟎 (𝒙𝒊 ) 𝒅𝒕
• Time runs differently at each point of a
gravitational field
 The space-time metric
• A concrete example is a weak 𝑑𝜏 = −𝑔RR (𝑥⃗) 𝑑𝑡
gravitational field with potential 𝜙(𝑥⃗)

• We will show later in the course that:

𝑔RR 𝑥⃗ = −1 − 2𝜙/𝑐 $

• At height ℎ in a simple vertical

gravitational field, 𝜙 = 𝑔ℎ

• So the ticking period of the clock varies

as 𝑑𝑡 = 𝑑𝜏/ 1 + 2𝑔ℎ/𝑐 $
 What determines the metric?
• The question “what determines the space-time metric” is
the same question as – “what generates gravity”. The
answer is the distribution of matter and energy

• Later in the course, we will study the equation which links

the space-time curvature to the distribution of matter