Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 ii Paper 1 35C Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Stationarity gives the conserved Killing energy per unit rest mass , where dots here denote proper-time derivatives. It measures energy relative to the time-translation Killing field; a static local observer measures . Timelike normalization isEliminating and setting givesThus, on each increasing/decreasing leg respectively, and . The printed positive differentials describe the increasing leg, not both legs at once. Differentiation along a leg gives , extending smoothly through the turning points. Hence and the proper-time period is .
The requested velocity sketches are the branches and . They share the turning points and opposite signs on the two legs; their speed ratio is , smaller than one near zero and larger than one near the endpoints. The supplied integral is the coordinate time from to , equal to . The return leg takes the same time, so the coordinate-time period is also .
For the perturbed metric the same Killing conservation gives , and normalization becomes . Since ,Both weights without are even in . Oddness of makes its integral over the symmetric excursion vanish. Each increasing leg therefore still takes in either clock; the decreasing leg takes the same integrals with reversed orientation. Both periods remain exactly , although the proper-time waveform is no longer generally sinusoidal. This is the odd radial perturbations preserve timelike-geodesic periods mechanism. Smoothness of the metric and positivity of ensure regular turning and monotone coordinate time.
