In , a constant- observer has . The nonzero Christoffel symbols are and . Its covariant acceleration components are , , with invariant magnitude . This is constant proper acceleration, not a covariantly constant four-vector. In inertial coordinates the worldline is the hyperbola .
Proper acceleration of a static Schwarzschild observer Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
A static observer at Schwarzschild radius must maintain the outward proper acceleration
It approaches the Newtonian value at large radius and diverges at the horizon.
For rectilinear motion write the four-velocity in an inertial frame as , where is the rapidity and is proper time. Differentiation gives , with invariant in the metric signature. The signed proper acceleration is therefore . Constant signed acceleration gives ; specifying initial position alone leaves the initial rapidity undetermined.
Relativistic hyperbolic motion in a uniform electric field Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A particle released from rest in a constant electric field parallel to its motion follows a spacetime hyperbola and has rapidity proportional to proper time.
This force law realizes hyperbolic motion with constant proper acceleration.
An instantaneous reversal is an idealization. A real traveller changes velocity over a finite time, follows a smooth world line, and has finite proper acceleration. Special relativity still calculates the elapsed proper time using the home inertial frame and the same integral; general relativity is not needed merely because the traveller accelerates in otherwise flat spacetime. The clock hypothesis identifies an ideal clock's reading with this geometric proper time.
One explicit smooth trip between the same and starts and ends at rest in the home inertial frame. Choose
Its velocity reverses continuously at , and its proper acceleration is bounded because and is finite. With and , numerical integration gives
This comparison fixes the reunion spacetime events and maximum speed, not the turnaround distance: the smooth trip reaches light-years, whereas the ideal trip reaches light-years. The smooth traveller spends less time at high speed and therefore accumulates more proper time than the ideal traveller, while still accumulating less than the home clock.
Figure 1.
Signed velocity and accumulated proper time for ideal and smooth trips with the same ten-year reunion and maximum speed 0.6c; their turnaround distances differ
. Details.
For a sufficiently short smooth reversal replacing the corner, the proper time approaches the piecewise inertial result. A reversal interval of home duration contributes between zero and to the clock reading; shrinking that interval cannot create a finite extra loss concentrated at the corner. The finite difference survives in the long coasting legs. Keeping the same reversal manoeuvre while lengthening those legs changes the age difference. Conversely, two travellers following mirrored paths with the same speed history accumulate equal proper times, even though both accelerate. Thus acceleration distinguishes paths and enables reunion here, but an amount of acceleration alone does not determine the age difference.
The changing simultaneity assignment also becomes continuous. At a traveller spacetime event with instantaneous velocity , the momentarily comoving inertial frame assigns home time . Differentiating gives
During the reversal at positive , the last term advances the assigned home time rapidly. It describes the traveller's changing relativity of simultaneity, not a locally measured alteration of the home clock's ticking.
An inertial observer of a fixed- flat brane in metric is accelerated relative to the higher-dimensional bulk. Normalization and give . This is its invariant bulk proper acceleration, not a nonzero intrinsic four-dimensional acceleration on the flat induced brane metric.