Black Holes (Ph 161)

An introduction to General Relativity- 2015

Lecture II

Natural Units
In this system of units there is only one fundamental dimension, energy.
This is accomplished by setting Plancks constant, the speed of light,
and Boltzmanns constant to unity, i.e.,

By doing this most any quantity can be expressed as powers of energy,

because now we easily can arrange for

To restore normal units we need only insert appropriate powers of

of the fundamental constants above

It helps to remember the dimension

of these quantities . . .

for example, picking convenient units (

geometrized or natural units for

spacetime

Define the Planck Mass

. . . and now the Gravitational constant is just . . .

It turns out that in a weak gravitational field the time-time

component of the metric is related to the Newtonian gravitational
potential by . . .

Where the Newtonian gravitational potential is

dimensionless !

A convenient coordinate system for

weak & static (no time dependence) gravitational fields
is given by the following coordinate system/metric:
system/metric

This would be a decent description of the spacetime

geometry and gravitational effects around the earth,
the sun, and white dwarf stars, but not near the surfaces
of neutron stars.

Characteristic Metric Deviation

OBJECT MASS

RADIUS

Newtonian
Gravitational
Potential

(solar masses)

(cm)

earth

3 x 10-6

6.4 x 108

~10-9

sun

6.9 x1010

~10-6

~1

5 x 108

~10-4

white
dwarf
neutron
star

~1

10

~0.1
to 0.2

Cavendish expt.
UW-NPL

Handy Facts: Solar System

radius of earths orbit around sun

Handy Facts: the Universe

The essence of General Relativity:

There is no gravitation: in locally inertial coordinate sy

which the Equivalence Principle guarantees are always th
the effects of gravitation are absent!

The Einstein Field equations have as their solutions

global coordinate systems which cover big patches of spa

The Equivalence Principle

Eotvos experiments
meaning for freely falling bodies
geometric implications
geodesics

Galileo drops different size balls off the Leaning Tower . . .

Jinavie.tumblr.com

The ETVS Experiment

torsion balance

see www.npl.washington.edu/eotwash

Magnitude of torque on fiber:

EotWash labs results: sensitivity for long range forces

is at about 1 part in 1013

www.npl.washington.edu/eotwash/

EP experiment
UW-NPL

OK, what does this mean?

Everything falls at the same rate!

Apollo 15 astronaut
David R. Scott drops a hammer
and a feather . . . Guess what happens?
www.hq.nasa.gov/ . . ./History/SP-4214/cover.html

One begins to get a creepy feeling that the acceleration

produced by gravity has nothing to do with what the bodies
in question are made out of, but rather is a property of space
(spacetime) itself!

equivalence of inertial and gravitational mass:

cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/bmendez/ay10/2002/notes/pics

elevators in free fall . . . & the E. P.

Someone cuts your elevators cable and you release the two balls
that you have in your hands . . . What happens?

If we make the elevator small

enough, it looks to us as if
THERE IS NO GRAVITY !!!
Cannot tell the difference between
an elevator in free fall and the
absence of gravitation.

1 g = 9.8 m s-2

Gravitation as Geometry
Statement of the
Equivalence Principle:

Statement of the fundamental theorem

of differential geometry for 2-D surfaces:

In a sufficiently small region

of space & time we can find
a freely falling (locally Minkowski)
coordinate system in which the
effects of gravitation are absent
- the laws of physics are
the same as they are in a
Minkowski coordinate system
with no gravitation.

In a sufficiently small region on any 2-D

surface, the geometry is locally flat and
Cartesian. (We can pass a tangent plane
through any point on the surface. In a
sufficiently small region around where
this tangent plane touches the surface,
the geometry will be flat, like a
Cartesian plane.)

Coordinate Transformations
Follows from the chain rule: view coordinates in one system
as functions of the coordinates
in the other frame.
e.g., consider these four functions:
chain rule gives:

Coordinate transformation is these 16 functions:

In locally inertial (Minkowski) coordinates

moving on a straight line

multiply both sides by

the particle is unaccelerated, and

and sum:

Geodesic Equation

So in this coordinate system ( x) it looks as if the particle

experiences a gravitational force and is accelerated.

Note that another way to write this equation is

General Vectors

. . . where the metric tensor components are the inner products

of the general, curvilinear (coordinate) basis vectors . . .

so in a sense the basis vectors transform oppositely fro

the vector components in order that the contraction of th
(the vector geometric object) be frame invariant

One-Forms

linear functions of vectors into real numbers

just like vectors are linear functions of one-forms into real

A 1-form is a geometric objec

-It is like a contour map,

i.e., a set of nested surfaces
Constant value of some quan
on each surface.

National Geographic Everest Region

The fundamental, frame invariant, operation

between vectors (arrows)
and 1-forms (nested surfaces) is the
CONTRACTION
Lay the vector V on the 1-form P
and count how many
surfaces are pierced.
That is a frame-invariant real number =

The metric tensor turns vectors into 1-forms

and the inverse metric does the opposite

Connection Coefficients
(Christoffel symbols)

These are obviously related to how the locally Minkowski

coordinates differ from our lab coordinates x

Now, in considering these two coordinate systems, the locally

Minkowski coordinates
, and the lab coordinates
,
we will demand that the spacetime interval is always the same:

Length, Area, and Volume and the Metric

Watch out! Actual physical (or proper) lengths, areas, and volumes
are not the same as coordinate values of the same quantity.
It must be kept in mind that the spacetime interval is preserved under
coordinate transformations. Think about the invariant interval
corresponding to an infinitesimal coordinate increment:

More Examples . . .

The components of the metric tensor in freely falling,

locally Minkowski coordinates
are

The components of the metric tensor in the lab

coordinate system
are

The Metric Tensor and General Coordinates

. . . this is how the components of the metric transform

under a coordinate transformation, where the transformation
matrix elements are (for a so-called coordinate basis)

for the two different coordinate systems

and

The Equivalence Principle says that at any event in spacetime

it is always possible to find a transformation to locally
Minkowski coordinates.

The general metric tensor field is

It is symmetric:

Why?

Therefore, there are 10 independent functions

at any event (point) in spacetime.
The metric tensor defines a coordinate system
and vice versa through the line element

The Equivalence Principal

With this the Christoffel symbols can b
guarantees that
written in terms of the inverse metric
partial derivatives of the metric as . . .

in general true only for coordinate bases

where the inverse metric is so-named because . . .

Examples in 3-D: flat Cartesian coordinates

and spherical polar coordinates.

flat space means Minkowski coordinates (t,x,y,z)

the metric for which is just

What about coordinates (t,r,) ?

BOTH COORDINATE SYSTEMS

DESCRIBE THE SAME GEOMETRY

How do we tell the difference between

between coordinates that imply
curvature (gravitational effects) and
just plain old flat space masquerading
itself with curvilinear coordinates?

The answer can be found in the Equivalence Principle which

says that physics is invariant under coordinate transformations,
all coordinate transformations. We are free to choose a coordinate
transformation any way we want:

The E.P. gives us enough freedom to choose coordinates at

any event (point) to transform the metric components
to be those of the Minkowski metric and the first derivatives
of the metric to be zero, thereby making the Christoffel
symbols zero as well.
Expand our lab coordinates in a Taylor series about point
in the desired
coordinates (which will of course be the locally inertial, Minkowski coordinates) . . .

Similarly expand the metric functions and use

We would like to transform the metric to the flat space, Minkowski

metric and we would like to get rid of as many derivatives of the
metric functions as possible . . . What can we do with our
freedom to choose the coordinate transformation?

20 second derivatives of the metric which cannot in general be

set to zero with the coordinate freedom given by the E. P.

Curvature Riemann Tensor

Define intrinsic curvature as the difference between an initial vecto

and the same vector parallel-transported around an infinitesimal lo

these terms give the nonlineari

i.e., products of first derivatives
metric components

It turns out that in a weak gravitational field the time-time

component of the metric is related to the Newtonian gravitational
potential by . . .

Where the Newtonian gravitational potential is

dimensionless !

Characteristic Metric Deviation

OBJECT MASS

RADIUS

Newtonian
Gravitational
Potential

(solar masses)

(cm)

earth

3 x 10-6

6.4 x 108

~10-9

sun

6.9 x1010

~10-6

~1

5 x 108

~10-4

white
dwarf
neutron
star

~1

10

~0.1
to 0.2

A convenient coordinate system for

weak & static (no time dependence) gravitational fields
is given by the following coordinate system/metric:
system/metric

This would be a decent description of the spacetime

geometry and gravitational effects around the earth,
the sun, and white dwarf stars, but not near the surfaces
of neutron stars.
We will explore this metric with variational principles later.

The Schwarzschild Metric

(spherically symmetric, static spacetime)

Schwarzschild coordinates

Functions of radial coordinate r to be determined

by particular spherically symmetric, static distribution
of mass-energy:

Schwarzschild metric in vacuum outside a spherical, static distribution

of mass M is

What is the physical (proper)

distance along this radial line?

Remember that the metric functions are dimensionless:

Newtonian Potential:

Schwarzschild Radius

Schwarzschild Metric: conserved quantities

Note that none of the metric functions depend on the timelike coordinate

This means that the timelike covariant component of the four-momentum

of a freely falling particle will be conserved along this particles world line
(a geodesic).

covariant components:

timelike covariant component:

Photon emitted at r1 with energy Eem . What is its energy when it gets to r2?
In freely falling coordinates:
But this inner product could be evaluated in any coordinate system and you will always get the same result.
Lets compute it Schwarzschild coordinates.
A locally inertial, freely falling
observer at this location will
measure the photon to have
energy

So, the conserved quantity along

the geodesic is:

This is the gravitational redshift:

Redshift is defined as :

Cosmology

Friedmann-LeMaitre-Robertson-Walker me

A quick and dirty tour of all of the whole universe

- the large scale structure/evolution of spacetime!

Hubble (HST)
Ultra Deep Field
Some of the first
galaxies to form.

GeorgeGamow

AlbertEinstein

GeorgeLeMaitre

A.Friedmann

Homogeneityandisotropyoftheuniverse:
impliesthattotalenergyinsideacomovingsphericalsurfaceisconstantwithtime.
totalenergy=(kineticenergyofexpansion)+(gravitationalpotentialenergy)
massenergydensity=
testmass=m
3
4
G

a
m

2
3
1

2 ma

8
2 k G a2
a
3

totalenergy>0expandforeverk=1

totalenergy=0for= critk=0
totalenergy<0recollapsek=+1

= crit

(k=0)

0.3

The key point in our argument was symmetry:

specifically, a homogeneous and isotropic distribution
of mass and energy!
What evidence is there that this is true?
Look around you. This is manifestly NOT true on
small scales. The Cosmic Microwave Background
Radiation (CMB) represents our best evidence that
matter is smoothly and homogeneously distributed
on the largest scales.

The COBE satellite - the microwave background radiation

Blackbody radiation

Friedman-LeMaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) coordinates

defined through this metric . . .

k=1

k=0

k=+1

How far does a photon travel in the age of the universe?

(causal horizon)

Consider a radially-directed photon (

photons travel on
null world lines so ds2=0

Causal (Particle) Horizon

radiation dominated

matter dominated
vacuum energy dominated

In every case the physical (proper) distance a light signal travels goes
to infinity as the value of the timelike coordinate t does.
Note, however, that for the vacuum dominated case there is a finite
limiting value for the FLRW radial coordinate as t goes to infinity . . .

REDSHIFT
Note that with the FLRW metric fixed values of the FLRW spacelike coordinates
correspond to geodesics. Why?
So, e.g., a particular freely falling galaxy will have fixed values
of FLRW spacelike coordinates (r1,, ). These are sometimes called
co-moving coordinates because they ride along with the freely falling mass.
Crest of electromagnetic wave leaves here at t1
Next crest leaves
at t1+t1

Is received at
at t0+t0
Crest arrives
here at t0

The redshift is z

Type Ia supernovae
(thermonuclear explosions)
serve as standard candles,
meaning we claim to know
their absolute brightness.
From the measured flux of photons
we can get their distance and from
their spectra we can get their redshift.
Putting these together we can get
distance as a function of
redshift and, hence,
scale factor as a function of time
for redshifts out to
Z ~ 1.

LBL supernova cosmology website

LBL supernova cosmology website

LBL supernova cosmology website

WMAP cosmic microwave background satellite

Fluctuations in CMB temperature give

Insight into the composition, size, and age
of the universe and the large scale character
of spacetime.
Age = 13.7 Gyr
Spacetime = flat (meaning k=0)
Composition = 23% unknown nonrelativistic
matter, 73% unknown
vacuum energy (dark energy),
4% ordinary baryons.

(fraction of critical density contributed by vacuum energy)

observational constraints
on the content of
of nonrelativistic matter
and vacuum energy
(dark energy) in the
universe

(fraction of critical density contributed by nonrelativistic matter)

(vacuumenergy)

Weliveinak=0,criticallycloseduniverse.

photondecouplingT~0.2eV

vacuum+matterdominated
atcurrentepoch