Use geometrized units and metric signature ; is proper time. The Killing vectors and of the Schwarzschild metric give the conserved specific Killing energy and specific angular momentum
Put . In the equatorial plane , and normalization of the four-velocity gives
Choosing the inward branch therefore yields
The divergence of the time component at the Schwarzschild event horizon is a coordinate effect; the inward radial component tends to .
Capture from infinity. To reach the event horizon from infinity, the radial square must remain nonnegative throughout . Equivalently,
Differentiating the right side gives , so its minimum occurs at and equals . Thus
is the necessary capture bound. At equality the radial numerator is . An inward particle arriving from larger radii approaches the unstable orbit only after infinite proper time, because is proportional to near that orbit. Actual plunges from infinity require . This is Schwarzschild marginally bound capture.
The origin-at-infinity hypothesis is important and is not explicit in the PDF. A particle already inside the angular-momentum barrier can plunge with larger . For example, and initial radius give positive radial numerator , remaining positive as decreases to . This trajectory has and reaches the event horizon. Thus an unrestricted claim about every inward particle would be false; the bound is the intended capture-from-infinity statement.
Invariant collision energy. At a collision, the total four-momentum is . The invariant center-of-mass energy uses the covariant metric:
The PDF instead prints a raised metric multiplying raised velocities. That contraction is not a tensor scalar; the corrected expression above, or a raised metric with lowered momenta, is required. Since each four-velocity has norm ,
Let . For two inward trajectories the radial product is positive, and direct substitution into the Schwarzschild metric gives
Putting these terms over one denominator proves
Horizon limit and the upper bound. A cancellation-free way to take the limit is to write and . As ,
Hence
and therefore
For particles captured from infinity, , giving in the horizon limit. For actual captured trajectories the inequality is strict, but the supremum is approached by and . Their azimuthal starting positions can be chosen so that the trajectories meet. If particles may instead be prepared near the event horizon, the counterexample , has limiting energy ; no universal bound then follows.
For a massive particle of rest mass , its four-momentum is , where the four-velocity is , and . With metric signature , . A photon has four-momentum , a future-pointing null vector. Four-momentum conservation states that the total incoming and outgoing four-momenta agree for an isolated interaction; this includes both energy and momentum conservation in every inertial frame.
Take the incoming photon direction as . Its energy is , so the total initial four-momentum is
The invariant mass available after photon absorption is therefore . In the centre-of-momentum frame, the two equal daughters have opposite momenta. Their total energy is at least their combined rest energy , with equality precisely when both daughters have zero momentum in that frame. Thus the mass threshold after photon absorption is
The bound is attainable kinematically by taking each daughter four-momentum equal to ; each then has the required rest mass. It immediately gives as .
At this threshold both daughters move with the centre-of-momentum frame. The common laboratory velocity follows from :
For , its continuous limiting value is zero. At smaller allowed daughter rest masses, some of the centre-of-momentum energy appears as their relative kinetic energy, so their four-momenta need not be .
For a Lorentz transformation to an inertial frame moving at speed in the positive direction, write and . Any four-vector transforms as
This convention applies to and uses the same Minkowski metric as the four-momentum calculation.
The definition of proper time gives for . Hence the four-velocity is
Since , differentiating with respect to proper time gives
Here simplifies the spatial component of the four-acceleration.
At each event, boost with to the instantaneous rest inertial frame. Then and . Thus the signed proper acceleration for one-dimensional motion is
The last equality follows by differentiating ; its magnitude is the usual scalar proper acceleration.
If this signed proper acceleration is constant and the particle starts from rest, integration gives , so
Integrating once more and imposing yields the hyperbolic motion worldline
For the continuous limiting solution is . Finally, the Taylor series of the square root gives
This recovers constant-acceleration Newtonian mechanics at low speed while the exact relativistic speed remains less than .
In the local rest frame the four-velocity is , the current is , and the pressureless particle fluid has only nonzero. Covariance therefore gives
The absence of random rest-frame velocities is what makes this a dust stress-energy tensor rather than a fluid with pressure. The Lorentz four-force on a particle and its equation of motion are and .
Particle-number conservation gives . It also follows from charge conservation when , obtained by antisymmetric double differentiation of Maxwell's equations. Consequently
Adding part (i) proves . Energy and momentum exchanged with the field cancel in the total tensor.
Let and parametrize the timelike geodesic by proper time . Time-translation and rotational symmetry conserve and in the equatorial plane. The normalized four-velocity obeys
Substitution and multiplication by give , or
The dot denotes a proper-time derivative, and are energy and angular momentum per unit rest mass.
Use the Minkowski metric and define the electromagnetic field tensor by
As a rank-two Lorentz tensor, it transforms under a Lorentz transformation as
Two independent quadratic electromagnetic field invariants are
With , , and , the components are
Direct contraction gives
where the sign of changes if the opposite spacetime orientation is chosen. Since both are complete tensor contractions, and are Lorentz scalars.
For a constant uniform field, the relativistic Lorentz force is a constant-coefficient linear ordinary differential equation. Its solution is the matrix exponential
Now implies that the field is a null electromagnetic field:
The stated axes allow us to choose
Put . On the coordinates, the mixed tensor divided by is
The particle starts with four-velocity , so the exponential terminates after its quadratic term and gives
Integrating with the particle initially at the origin gives the relativistic trajectory in a constant null crossed field
Eliminating yields
If the original positive direction is opposite to , both the sign of and the displayed signed coefficient reverse.
Because is proper time, the four-velocity has normalization
At , the initial data therefore give
Both and are future oriented, so the positive root must be chosen:
A perfect fluid in general relativity has stress-energy tensor
where . Besides the metric tensor, one needs the energy density , the pressure , and three independent components of the normalized four-velocity : five scalar functions of spacetime in total.
The four equations of stress-energy conservation, , split parallel and perpendicular to into
An equation of state, such as a barotropic equation of state , supplies the fifth relation needed to close the evolution.
For a constant electromagnetic field tensor, the relativistic Lorentz force is a linear system with constant coefficients, so
Put
The initial four-velocity is . For parallel fields along , the field tensor has one hyperbolic block in the plane and one rotation block in the plane. With the orientation convention in the question,
Taking the initial spacetime point to be the origin and integrating gives the relativistic motion in parallel electric and magnetic fields
The expressions have their continuous or limits when one field vanishes; reversing the sign of reverses the electric acceleration and magnetic rotation.
Eliminating proper time between the first two equations yields
At early coordinate time,
which is uniformly accelerated motion with the transverse relativistic inertia factor . At late positive time,
so the longitudinal speed approaches the speed of light.
The - projection satisfies
It is therefore a circle of radius and proper-time period
For the pitch magnitude assume and put , , and
Number the th proper-time period as . Its longitudinal displacement is
Consequently, as ,
where
Let be the worldline, its four-velocity, and
The relativistic Lorentz force in the constant background is
Because , its exponential terminates:
The particle starts from rest, so
Using the matrix from part (c) gives
Integrating from the origin and using yields the parametric trajectory
This is the relativistic trajectory in a constant null crossed field. The real cubic relation for is strictly increasing, so it determines uniquely as a function of coordinate time if an explicit is desired.
A static worldline has four-velocity
Its four-acceleration is . The only nonzero component is
Taking its norm with gives the proper acceleration of a static Schwarzschild observer
It points radially outward, because that is the acceleration needed to prevent the station from falling. As the square-root factor tends to one, and , the Newtonian gravitational field in units .
Let , let be proper time, and define the four-velocity and four-momentum by
If is the electromagnetic field tensor, the covariant Lorentz force law is
The temporal component and three spatial components respectively give
Here is the relativistic energy and is the relativistic momentum. In the nonrelativistic limit, , so the spatial equation becomes
the usual Lorentz-force law.
The four-velocity and particle energy are
With the conventions for the given metric, . The temporal component of the covariant Lorentz force is therefore
Since , cancellation of gives the relativistic electromagnetic work-energy theorem
The absence of reflects that magnetic force is perpendicular to the velocity and does no work.
Proper-time normalization 2026-09-24
With signature and units , parametrizing a timelike worldline by proper time makes its four-velocity satisfy .