The optical-mechanical analogy in general relativity: Exact Newtonian forms for the equations of motion of particles and photons
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: The optical-mechanical analogy in general relativity: Exact Newtonian forms for the equations of motion of particles and photons
zbMATH Open document ID: 0851.53061
DOI: 10.1007/BF02105085
author: Yanyan Li
published in: General Relativity and Gravitation
publication date: 1996-08-22T00:00:00Z
review text: If, in a static spacetime, the spatial part of the metric is conformally flat, the effect of the gravitational field on (vacuum) light rays can be mimicked by an optical medium with an effective index of refraction. Correspondingly, those light rays are characterized by a variational principle that is completely analogous to the elementary optics textbook version of Fermat's principle. In the paper under review, the authors revisit this well-known analogy and its generalization to the case of massive particles. Several applications are indicated, in particular the motion of light rays and particles in a Reissner-Nordström type metric is considered in some detail.
reviewed by: Volker Perlick
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 53Z05
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 83C10
zbMATH DE Number: 887105
zbMATH Keywords: Reissner-Nordström spacetime
zbMATH Keywords: variational principle
zbMATH Keywords: Fermat's principle
zbMATH Keywords: motion of light rays and particles
MaRDI profile type: Publication
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full work available at URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02105085
OpenAlex ID: W1964194532
description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 887105