Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2017 / iii / Paper 309 / 2 / a / Solution

For a timelike tangent $v=dx/du$, put $L=\sqrt{-g(v,v)}>0$ and $\mathcal{L}=L^2/2=-g(v,v)/2$, and use the Euler-Lagrange equations. For the quadratic geodesic Lagrangian, they reduce toHere the first equation has been multiplied by an irrelevant minus sign. For the length Lagrangian, its derivatives are $L^{-1}$ times those of $\mathcal{L}$, and differentiating that factor yields insteadThis is the unparametrized geodesic equation, the key to why timelike length and energy have the same geodesic images. Define proper time locally by $d\tau /du=L>0$ and put $w=dx/d\tau =v/L$. The product rule then gives ${\nabla }_{w}w=L^{-2}[{\nabla }_{v}v-(\dot{L}/L)v]=0$ and $g(w,w)=-1$. Conversely an affinely parametrized timelike geodesic has constant $L$, by metric compatibility, and therefore satisfies both equations.

Thus the two variational problems have the same oriented timelike geodesic images, after reparametrization. They do not have exactly the same parametrized solutions with an arbitrary fixed $u$: in Minkowski spacetime, $t(u)=u^2$, $\mathbf{x}=0$, $u>0$, satisfies the length equation but not the quadratic equation. The timelike assumption excludes $L=0$, where this argument and the length derivative would fail.