Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-general-relativity-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021/3/a/solution
Past exam of the general relativity course of the University of Oxford 2021 3 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
The intended orbit is a freely falling timelike circular Schwarzschild geodesic. Use the Schwarzschild metric with rather than as the zeroth coordinate, and put the orbit at . Thus , , , with . The radial geodesic equation at constant isConsequently . The four-velocity normalization givesand henceHere is Schwarzschild time, the orbiting clock's proper time, the gravitational constant, the central mass, the constant areal radius, and the speed of light. The dimensionless follows the question's time-valued zeroth-coordinate convention; with the zeroth four-velocity component would be .
The condition is for a massive circular geodesic; radial stability further requires , with equality marginal. The phrase “any circular orbit” is false without free fall: a powered circular trajectory has with independently chosen . For example, at choose ; this valid accelerated circular trajectory has , instead of the displayed .
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