Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021/8/a/i/solution

Differentiate the worldline with respect to :
Since and , this is a future-directed timelike curve. The proper time element satisfies , hence
Alice's total proper time is therefore
This definite integral is an exact answer; it is an elliptic integral of the second kind. In notation , it is . Although this parameter exceeds one, the integrand is real on the stated interval because its minimum squared value is .
The endpoint events have and . Sam stays at in his inertial frame, so his elapsed proper time is . For , the integrand is strictly less than except at , and .

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