Powered by OpenAIRE graph
Found an issue? Give us feedback
image/svg+xml art designer at PLoS, modified by Wikipedia users Nina, Beao, JakobVoss, and AnonMoos Open Access logo, converted into svg, designed by PLoS. This version with transparent background. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Open_Access_logo_PLoS_white.svg art designer at PLoS, modified by Wikipedia users Nina, Beao, JakobVoss, and AnonMoos http://www.plos.org/ ZENODOarrow_drop_down
image/svg+xml art designer at PLoS, modified by Wikipedia users Nina, Beao, JakobVoss, and AnonMoos Open Access logo, converted into svg, designed by PLoS. This version with transparent background. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Open_Access_logo_PLoS_white.svg art designer at PLoS, modified by Wikipedia users Nina, Beao, JakobVoss, and AnonMoos http://www.plos.org/
ZENODO
Preprint
Data sources: ZENODO
addClaim

Gravitational train in the interior Schwarzschild metric: NLO and NNLO perturbative expansions

Authors: Rosignoli, Iman;

Gravitational train in the interior Schwarzschild metric: NLO and NNLO perturbative expansions

Abstract

We extend the gravitational train problem---a test particle sliding without friction through a tunnel inside a spherical body---to the interior Schwarzschild spacetime. Working in the equatorial plane, we show that the coordinate travel-time functional is the length of a positive-definite Riemannian optical (Jacobi) metric on the spatial slice. The cyclic symmetry yields a relativistic Snell law; expanding its integrand in the compactness parameter $\mu = r_s/R$ and integrating in closed form, we obtain the angular half-opening as a power series in $\mu$ through next-to-next-to-leading order.Perturbative inversion gives explicit NLO and NNLO corrections to the Newtonian relation $q = 1 - \Delta/\pi$, both positive for $0 < \Delta < \pi$: the optimal tunnel becomes progressively shallower with increasing compactness. The perturbative results are validated against direct numerical integration of the exact geodesic equation, and agree to four significant figures for $\mu \lesssim 0.3$. Near the Buchdahl bound $\mu \to 8/9$, the optical index diverges at the centre as $(8/9 - \mu)^{-1}$, creating a central optical barrier that forces the brachistochrone toward the surface---the optical signature of extreme gravitational redshift.

Powered by OpenAIRE graph
Found an issue? Give us feedback