Past exam of the relativity course of the University of Cambridge 2021 Section B 6 b Solution 2026-10-18
Put and . Radial null geodesics of the Schwarzschild metric obeyNear the horizon, satisfies describes the exterior and the interior. The exponential approach in Schwarzschild coordinate time resembles part (a), but is not a proper radial distance.
Outside, set and retain the leading near-horizon terms. The radial metric becomes the Rindler limit of a Schwarzschild horizon:It agrees with part (a) for , . Accordingly , while explains the factor two in its exponent.
Inside, write . The leading radial metric is insteadHere the radial coordinate is timelike and the Schwarzschild coordinate is spacelike. Thus in the Rindler metric does not represent the black-hole interior: stays positive on both Rindler wedges. In the black-hole interior all future-directed radial light rays move towards decreasing ; the two signs of do not mean opposite future radial directions because is no longer time.
The horizon is a coordinate singularity in Schwarzschild coordinates and in the accelerated chart, not a curvature singularity. The full Schwarzschild geometry nevertheless has genuine tidal forces; the flat Rindler metric captures its leading local radial near-horizon structure.
Reissner-Nordstrom Kretschmann scalar 2026-10-25
For the Reissner-Nordstrom metric with , the Kretschmann scalar isThe first expression follows by squaring the independent Riemann curvature tensor components in an orthonormal frame. This Kretschmann scalar diverges at for any nonzero or , but is finite at every positive root of . Regular Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates show that those positive roots are coordinate singularities of the static chart. In the extremal case , its horizon value is .
The radial vector field on punctured three-dimensional Euclidean space has flux through every centered sphere. It has no vector potential smooth on an entire enclosing sphere: the Stokes theorem on a closed surface would force zero flux. Two overlapping patches suffice. In spherical coordinates take , regular away from the negative axis, and , regular away from the positive axis. Their curls both equal .
The Cartesian forms and show that the first is smooth at the north pole and the second at the south pole. On the overlap their difference is , where the azimuth is defined locally. Its multivaluedness around the axis explains the circulation difference . Splitting the sphere along a latitude, applying the Stokes theorem with on the north and on the south, and using their opposite boundary orientations recovers the total flux. A coordinate singularity in the tangential spherical basis does not by itself make a vanishing smooth vector field singular at a pole.
Zenith Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
The zenith is the point on the celestial sphere in the direction of the observer's local upward vertical. In the horizontal coordinate system, its unit vector is and its altitude is . The zenith belongs to the observer's site; it is not generally the north celestial pole, whose altitude depends on geographical latitude. A direction's zenith distance is its nonnegative angle from the zenith, so . A direction of altitude therefore has zenith distance . [ref]
https://www.astro.uvic.ca/~tatum/celmechs/celm6.pdf. Jeremy Tatum: Celestial mechanics, section 6.2, zenith and complementary zenith distance
.At the zenith, every value of azimuth produces . There is no horizontal component to identify a bearing: cannot provide a geometrically meaningful azimuth, even if software returns a number. This coordinate singularity is a defect of the angular description; the viewing direction itself remains regular. The same ambiguity occurs at the opposite downward vertical. Near the zenith, two directions at fixed altitude separated by a small azimuth increment have separation to first order, with angles in radians. At altitude , a azimuth increment spans only about on that small arc. An optical telescope can consequently require a large bearing change for a small change of pointing near the zenith; working with unit vectors avoids inventing a preferred bearing at the singular point.