Past exam of the relativity course of the University of Cambridge 2013 Paper 1 1 b Solution 2026-10-20
For geodesic motion of uncharged dust, use the pressureless stress-energy form, and . stress-energy conservation expands toContracting with kills the second term, since . Hence , and wherever ,On a flow line , so this becomes . Each relativistic dust element therefore follows a timelike geodesic with proper time as an affine parameter. pressure gradients or external nongravitational forces would add an acceleration term.
Past exam of the relativity course of the University of Cambridge 2016 Paper 1 3 Solution 2026-10-20
Use signature , coordinates and four-velocity normalized by . The derivative is the metric-compatible Levi-Civita connection. Fix the curvature sign by . Then the required contractions areWith , the contracted Bianchi identity gives . The Einstein field equations , with constant , therefore require covariant conservation of stress-energy. This is a consistency relation between geometry and the total matter/field source. It does not mean in arbitrary coordinates, nor guarantee a global conserved energy in an arbitrary curved spacetime. The geometric identity alone, without the field equations or matter dynamics, is not an equation of motion for a freely specified material source.
For relativistic dust, is proper rest-mass density, measured in the fluid rest frame, and is its timelike four-velocity with the normalization above. In a local Cartesian inertial frame , soAccordingly is momentum density and is energy flux in direction . The equality of momentum-density and energy-flux components after the appropriate factors of reflects the symmetry of the stress-energy tensor. In the comoving frame the spatial stress is zero, as required for pressureless matter.
Expand the dust conservation equation by the product rule:Contract with . metric compatibility and constant normalization give , leaving . Substitute this rest-mass continuity law back and divide by nonzero :This proves geodesic motion of uncharged dust along each fluid flow line. pressure forces or another exchange of momentum would change the argument; at zero density there is no dust worldline to constrain.
The electromagnetic field tensor is antisymmetric and has six independent components. In the stated local inertial coordinates choose and , givingThe fields are those measured by that local observer; changing observer mixes them through the Lorentz transformation of . With and , two independent quadratic contractions areThe second is a pseudoscalar: it is invariant under proper Lorentz transformations and changes sign under an orientation reversal. Opposite choices for the orientation tensor change its written sign. A nonzero null electromagnetic field can have both contractions zero, so the two numbers do not determine whether the tensor itself vanishes.
For charged relativistic dust, insert into the force-density equation:Contraction with again gives the continuity law, because by antisymmetry. After removing the continuity term,In a local inertial frame the spatial components reduce to and the temporal component gives . This is the relativistic Lorentz force, with gravity represented by the connection. The force is orthogonal to and preserves the rest-mass normalization. Matter alone now exchanges energy and momentum with the electromagnetic field; adding the field tensor's stress-energy restores zero divergence of the combined source.