At time , the accelerated proton has momentum and, by the relativistic energy-momentum relation, energy
The incident Cosmic microwave background photon adds energy . Since the final state contains only the Delta-plus baryon, conservation of relativistic energy gives its laboratory-frame Lorentz factor
Its rest-frame decay time is a proper time, so time dilation gives the laboratory decay time
For an affine parameter , the geodesic Lagrangian is
Varying gives the geodesic equations
The rotational Killing vector fields of the spherical symmetry conserve the angular-momentum vector. Its direction is fixed, so every nonradial orbit lies in the plane through the symmetry centre orthogonal to that vector. A spatial rotation can make this the equatorial plane. Equivalently, the initial conditions and solve the equation uniquely. This is the planarity of geodesics in spherical symmetry; a radial geodesic has zero angular momentum and may be assigned any plane.
On , the cyclic coordinates and produce geodesic conserved quantities from Killing vectors,
For a timelike geodesic parametrized by proper time, the proper-time normalization is . Substitution of and gives the first-order radial equation
This is the timelike geodesic effective potential for static Anti-de Sitter spacetime with curvature radius one.
A geodesic passing through must have . If it moves away from the origin, , and
Taking proper time at departure gives
It turns around at and first returns to the origin at
This energy-independent refocusing is the characteristic radial timelike geodesic in anti-de Sitter spacetime result; for curvature radius , the answer is .
For a constant electromagnetic field tensor, the relativistic Lorentz force is a linear system with constant coefficients, so
Put
The initial four-velocity is . For parallel fields along , the field tensor has one hyperbolic block in the plane and one rotation block in the plane. With the orientation convention in the question,
Taking the initial spacetime point to be the origin and integrating gives the relativistic motion in parallel electric and magnetic fields
The expressions have their continuous or limits when one field vanishes; reversing the sign of reverses the electric acceleration and magnetic rotation.
Eliminating proper time between the first two equations yields
At early coordinate time,
which is uniformly accelerated motion with the transverse relativistic inertia factor . At late positive time,
so the longitudinal speed approaches the speed of light.
The - projection satisfies
It is therefore a circle of radius and proper-time period
For the pitch magnitude assume and put , , and
Number the th proper-time period as . Its longitudinal displacement is
Consequently, as ,
where
In the parent's rest frame, momentum conservation makes the massive daughter and photon momenta equal and opposite, of magnitude . The relativistic two-body decay formulas give
Since and ,
The daughter's Lorentz factor is
If it decays after proper time , time dilation gives , while uniform motion gives . Therefore the event coordinates in the parent frame are
For , the only independent nonzero component of the electromagnetic field tensor is
The temporal and components of the Lorentz force show that and are constant. Taking , the transverse equations are
where dots now denote proper time derivatives. With
a solution is
Direct differentiation verifies both equations. Hence the trajectory is a relativistic cyclotron orbit with proper angular frequency ; the sign fixes its orientation.
The radial equation for a circular geodesic, or equivalently , gives the Angular velocity of a circular Schwarzschild geodesic
One orbit therefore takes Schwarzschild coordinate time
Observer is static at infinity, where coordinate time equals proper time, so
For the static observer at radius , , and the Schwarzschild spacetime metric gives
Thus
Along ,
where was used. Hence the Proper period of a circular Schwarzschild geodesic is
Let , let be proper time, and define the four-velocity and four-momentum by
If is the electromagnetic field tensor, the covariant Lorentz force law is
The temporal component and three spatial components respectively give
Here is the relativistic energy and is the relativistic momentum. In the nonrelativistic limit, , so the spatial equation becomes
the usual Lorentz-force law.
Write and . Varying with fixed endpoints and then choosing proper time as parameter, for which , gives the Euler-Lagrange equation
Expanding the derivative, raising the free index with the inverse metric, and using the symmetry of gives the geodesic equation
These are the Christoffel symbols of the Levi-Civita connection.
The proper time elapsed along the smooth timelike curve is
The expression is invariant under every orientation-preserving reparametrization of the curve.
With ,
Differentiation with respect to proper time gives
Orthogonality implies that in the instantaneous rest frame . For collinear motion a Lorentz boost gives
For constant positive proper acceleration ,
This hyperbola has future null asymptote . A right-moving signal emitted from at follows ; if , it lies beyond that acceleration horizon and never intersects the worldline.
A circular orbit at requires , hence
This can be satisfied for every . Moreover,
so every such circular orbit is stable. The radial energy equation gives
and future direction selects . Therefore
so proper time and coordinate time differ only by an additive constant on the orbit. Also .
Proper time satisfies and is invariant, so differentiating by it defines a four-vector. The path is timelike iff . Its next return occurs after coordinate time , so Bob ages
With ,
and for signature .
A radial timelike geodesic has conserved and normalization . Choose and the outward sign. Then
so the observer reaches in finite proper time even though static coordinate diverges.
Proper-time normalization 2026-09-24
With signature and units , parametrizing a timelike worldline by proper time makes its four-velocity satisfy .
Every maximal radial timelike geodesic in positive-mass Kruskal spacetime is incomplete in at least one direction. Its equations are and . A finite turning point is a maximum, and each trajectory reaches at one or both ends. The remaining proper time is finite because . Complete circular timelike geodesics exist, but they have nonzero angular momentum.
In a constant magnetic field with no electric field, a charged relativistic particle moves in a circle in the perpendicular plane. Its angular frequency with respect to proper time is
whereas its angular frequency in an inertial coordinate time is . The orbit radius at speed is
Relativistic force Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
For three-momentum , force and acceleration satisfy
When uniform and 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.
Relativistic trajectory in a constant null crossed field Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Choose
A particle released from rest at the origin has the proper-time trajectory
Eliminating proper time gives the semicubical parabola
This signed coefficient assumes that the positive direction is chosen along ; reversing that axis changes the signs of both and its coefficient.
Schwarzschild time 2026-10-06
Schwarzschild time is the exterior time coordinate normalized to the proper time of static observers at infinity. At fixed exterior radius, . A received signal and its emission occur at different values of this coordinate.