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In a constant magnetic field $B\hat{z}$ with no electric field, a charged relativistic particle moves in a circle in the perpendicular plane. Its angular frequency with respect to proper time iswhereas its angular frequency in an inertial coordinate time is ${\omega }_t=qB/(\gamma m)$. The orbit radius at speed $v$ is

A freely moving unstable particle of speed $v$ travels a laboratory distance $R$ in time $R/v$, accumulating proper time $R/(\gamma v)$. For rest-frame half-life $T$ and exponential decay, its survival probability is the displayed expression. At least half survive exactly when $\gamma vT\ge R$. The minimum speed is thereforeThe relevant flight length is $\gamma vT$, rather than $\gamma cT$ for a particle whose speed is appreciably less than $c$.

For three-momentum $p=\gamma mv$, force and acceleration satisfy

The associated four-force uses proper time instead of coordinate time and is a different, four-dimensional object.

When uniform $\mathbf{E}$ and $\mathbf{B}$ are parallel, the relativistic Lorentz force splits into independent hyperbolic motion along the fields and circular motion in the perpendicular plane. The circle is periodic in proper time, while electric acceleration makes the helix's longitudinal pitch grow exponentially from one proper-time cyclotron period to the next.

Consider an ideal circular vacuum path of laboratory radius $R$, a limit of closely spaced mirrors constraining light around the circle at laboratory speed $c$. The source and detector rotate uniformly together with signed angular velocity $\Omega$, where $|\Omega |R<c$, in flat spacetime. Let $L=2\pi R$ be the laboratory circumference and $A=\pi R^2$ the positive area. The $+$ pulse travels counterclockwise and the $-$ pulse clockwise, independently of the sign of $\Omega$. Both depart from the detector at $t=0$.

Unwrap the circle into a laboratory arc coordinate. The two first-return conditions areConsequently the exact laboratory arrival times and their difference areThe denominators $c\mp \Omega R$ are closing rates in these laboratory equations; they are not local speed of light measurements by a rotating observer. The two arrival spacetime events lie on the same detector world line. Its constant speed is $|\Omega |R$, so proper time along that world line givesThus laboratory coordinate-time and rotating-detector proper time delays agree only to leading order at small $|\Omega |R/c$. The radius and circumference here are laboratory quantities, not lengths obtained by laying comoving rods around the rim. Finite mirror polygons, transparent media, and optical dispersion require their own path and propagation assumptions before using an exact formula.

An exact dimensionless check takes $\Omega R/c=1/5$. Relative to $L/c$, the laboratory arrival times are $5/4$ and $5/6$, giving $\Delta t/(L/c)=5/12$. The detector instead records $\Delta \tau /(L/c)=\sqrt{6}/6\simeq 0.408248$. The leading Sagnac area law would give $\Delta t/(L/c)\simeq 2/5$. These are model values chosen to make the relativistic distinction visible, not attainable parameters of the historical apparatus.

The rotating loop does not constitute a universal measurement of the one-way speed of light. It compares completed circuits at a single readout; assigning a velocity to each remote leg additionally requires a clock synchronization convention. Local Einstein synchronisation around a rotating rim does not close into a single globally synchronized clock network: the accumulated mismatch is another expression of the rotating-path asymmetry. Local comoving vacuum measurements still give $c$ in both directions. Special relativity predicts a nonzero closed-loop delay because the receiver moves during propagation, while no single comoving inertial frame covers the whole circuit.

ChooseA particle released from rest at the origin has the proper-time trajectoryEliminating proper time gives the semicubical parabolaThis signed coefficient assumes that the positive $x$ direction is chosen along $\mathbf{E}$; reversing that axis changes the signs of both $x^3$ and its coefficient.

Let a receiver be initially at distance $D$ from a stationary responder and approach at speed $\beta c$. A light signal takes $D/c$ to reach the responder, which waits time $\delta$ and replies. Intersecting the reply's null worldline with the receiver's worldline givesThe receiver's proper time is ${\tau }_D$. These expressions describe reception before arrival when the reply is sent before the receiver reaches the responder; otherwise the trajectory after arrival must be specified.

The Sagnac effect is a difference in return times, or an associated interference fringe displacement, for light sent in opposite directions around a closed optical path in a rotating apparatus. The light leaves one beam splitter, travels around the same loop in opposite senses, and returns to the rotating beam splitter and readout. For a slowly rotating apparatus in flat spacetime, the leading laboratory arrival-time difference isHere $c$ is the vacuum speed of light, $\mathbf{\Omega }$ is the apparatus's angular velocity relative to an inertial frame, and $\mathbf{A}$ is the vector area oriented by the chosen positive direction around the closed curve $C$. With positive rotation about the upward normal vector, the counterclockwise beam is labelled $+$ and arrives later. Reversing rotation, or reversing the orientation convention alone, changes the sign of $\Delta t$.

The surprise is that a small loop can reveal its rotation by comparing two beams locally, even though each local vacuum speed of light measurement gives $c$. A rotating reference frame is not a single inertial frame: a beam must catch the moving receiver after a full circuit. The Sagnac area law makes this difference a practical way to measure angular velocity, while the Relativistic Sagnac delay on a circular ring distinguishes laboratory coordinate time from the receiver's proper time.

For radial timelike geodesic fall released from rest at $r_0>2M$, the Killing energy is $E=\sqrt{1-2M/r_0}$ and the proper time radial equation is $(dr/ds{)}^2=2M/r-2M/r_0$. The displayed parameterization integrates its inward branch, with $s=0$ at release. The Schwarzschild event horizon is reached at ${\eta }_H=\arccos (4M/r_0-1)$ in finite proper time, even though Schwarzschild time diverges.

// Target: general-relativity.bigb

In the exterior of Schwarzschild spacetime, $d{r}_{\ast }/dr=(1-2M/r{)}^{-1}$. Outgoing radial null geodesics therefore have constant $u=t-r_{\ast }$. At fixed receiver radius $R$, their arrival Schwarzschild time is $u+r_{\ast }(R)$, so differences in $u$ give arrival-time differences. A static receiver's proper time includes the factor $\sqrt{1-2M/R}$.

// Target: optics.bigb

An observer at fixed exterior Schwarzschild spatial coordinates. Its proper time is $dT=\sqrt{f}dt$, with $f=1-2GM/(r{c}^2)>0$. It is accelerated, not freely falling; no such static timelike worldline exists on or inside the event horizon.

Schwarzschild time $t$ is the exterior time coordinate normalized to the proper time of static observers at infinity. At fixed exterior radius, $d\tau =\sqrt{1-2M/r}dt$. A received signal and its emission occur at different values of this coordinate.

Take $L=[{\eta }_{ab}{\dot{x}}^a{\dot{x}}^b+W^2]/2$ with $W=\dot{y}+A_a{\dot{x}}^a=\xi$ constant. The Euler-Lagrange equation for $x^a$ isThus, with $F_{bc}={\partial }_b{A}_c-{\partial }_c{A}_b$,Reversing the explicit derivative order while retaining this metric and the same definition of $\xi$ changes the equation rather than merely changing a field-tensor naming convention. More generally, a fibre term $\sigma W^2$, $\sigma =\pm 1$, gives $\sigma \xi F^a{}_b{\dot{x}}^b$; its conserved canonical fibre momentum is $p_y=\sigma \xi$.

In the normalized positive-fibre case with $|\xi |<1$, four-dimensional proper time gives $d{u}^a/d\tau =c\xi F^a{}_b{u}^b/\sqrt{1-{\xi }^2}$. This has the Lorentz force form. The scale relating the geometrical $A$ to a physical electromagnetic four-potential fixes the conversion to an SI charge-to-mass ratio.

A spacetime metric is the Lorentzian metric on a spacetime. It determines proper time along timelike paths and the null directions that describe local light propagation.

In static coordinates on anti-de Sitter spacetime, write $f=1+r^2/L^2$, conserved energy per unit rest mass $E=f\dot{t}$, and conserved specific angular momentum $h=r^2\dot{\varphi }$. Timelike normalization gives ${\dot{r}}^2=E^2-V_{\mathrm{eff}}$ with $V_{\mathrm{eff}}=f(1+h^2/r^2)$. A circular geodesic at $r_0>0$ obeys $V_{\mathrm{eff}}^{\prime }=0$, so $h^2=r_0^4/L^2$ and $E=f(r_0)$. Thus $\dot{t}=1$ and $\dot{\varphi }=\pm 1/L$. Both its static-coordinate period and its own proper time period are $2\pi L$, independent of radius. Stability follows from $V_{\mathrm{eff}}^{\prime \prime }(r_0)=8/L^2>0$. A static clock at the orbital radius measures the different period $2\pi L\sqrt{f(r_0)}$, which does depend on radius.

This region $0\le r<R$ of de Sitter spacetime is static for the central observer, with a cosmological Killing horizon at $r=R$. The central proper time fixes the normalization of ${\partial }_t$. Static observers have acceleration $r/(R^2\sqrt{1-r^2/R^2})$. Horizon-crossing null coordinates remove the coordinate singularity, while the global extension has compact spherical spatial slices and spacelike past/future conformal infinity.

In synchronous coordinates, fixed spatial-coordinate worldlines are timelike geodesics, and $t$ is their proper time. The metric has unit lapse function and zero shift vector in time units consistent with the displayed factor $c^2$. Indeed $g_{tt}=c^2$ and $g_{ti}=0$ give ${\Gamma }^{\mu }{}_{tt}=0$. Locally, an irrotational freely falling congruence permits this construction before crossings of the coordinate worldlines. Comoving observers in a Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker metric provide the standard cosmological example.

If one clock measures a proper time interval $\Delta \tau$ while moving at constant speed $v$ in an inertial frame, that frame measures $\Delta t=\gamma \Delta \tau$, where $\gamma$ is the Lorentz factor. The two spacetime events must lie on that clock's world line.

Suppose a clock moving at $0.6c$ advances by $4\mu \mathrm{s}$ between two ticks. Set $t=x=t^{\prime }=x^{\prime }=0$ at the first tick. The laboratory's synchronized clocks assign $\Delta t=1.25\times 4=5\mu \mathrm{s}$. During that interval the clock travels $\Delta x=0.6c\times 5\mu \mathrm{s}=3c\mu \mathrm{s}$, approximately $899.38\mathrm{m}$. The Minkowski interval checks the result:Both frames therefore recover the same $4\mu \mathrm{s}$ of proper time. This calculation is useful whenever a process is timed on a moving apparatus but described using laboratory clocks.

A light clock makes the mechanism visible. Two mirrors separated by $h$ perpendicular to the motion exchange a pulse; define one tick as its complete return to the lower mirror. In the clock's rest frame the tick takes $\Delta \tau =2h/c$. In the laboratory each half-tick lasts $T$ and the light traverses a diagonal, so the Pythagorean theorem givesFor $h=1\mathrm{m}$ and $v=0.6c$, each leg covers $1.25\mathrm{m}$ while the mirrors move $0.75\mathrm{m}$. The return tick lasts $2.5\mathrm{m}/c$ instead of $2\mathrm{m}/c$: the light has the same speed of light in both accounts. ^[ref].

Reciprocal time dilation is consistent: each inertial frame times the other frame's single moving clock using its own synchronized clock network. These comparisons use different simultaneous spacetime events. Comparing reunited clocks instead requires their complete world lines, as in the twin paradox.

A timelike geodesic has timelike tangent and vanishing covariant acceleration in an affine parameter. Choosing proper time gives $g(\dot{\gamma },\dot{\gamma })=-1$.

Physically, an ideal massive test particle in free fall follows a timelike geodesic when nongravitational forces and appreciable self-gravity can be neglected. The normalization above uses $c=1$; in SI units it is $g(u,u)=-c^2$. Zero covariant acceleration does not mean constant coordinate velocity: a dropped object accelerates relative to the ground. Conversely, a person standing on the ground is pushed away from free fall by the supporting surface. A photon follows a null geodesic, whose parameter cannot be proper time. See Tong's geodesics in spacetime.

For $\alpha >0$ and $t\ne 0$, the conformal factor $t^2/\alpha$ makes spatial translation a Killing vector field. Using proper time, its conserved momentum is $P=(t^2/\alpha )dx/d\tau$. With $v=dx/dt$ and $d{s}^2=-c^{2}d{\tau }^2$ this becomesThus $v/\sqrt{1-v^2/c^2}$ alone is not constant. Set $b=\sqrt{\alpha }P/c$. Every unparametrized timelike geodesic in a connected nonzero-$t$ patch has the formThe nonvertical paths have $v=cb/\sqrt{t^2+b^2}$ and proper-time parametrizationThe chart excludes $t=0$, where its metric is degenerate; a vertical family must not be lost by dividing by the conserved momentum.