PHYSICS · Multi-part · Fermi University Physics · Relativity & Gravitation · Differential geometry of curved spacetime · Schwarzschild spacetime and the tests of general relativity
The Geometry of Gravity, Ch The Schwarzschild geometry and Birkhoff's theorem
Problem
Consider the static spherically symmetric ansatz ds2=−e2A(r)c2dt2+e2B(r)dr2+r2dΩ2, with r defined so that a sphere of coordinate r has area exactly 4πr2.
((a)) State, for each of the following features of the ansatz, which Killing symmetry of a static, spherically symmetric spacetime is responsible for it: (i) the absence of a dtdr cross term; (ii) A and B depending on r only, not t; (iii) A and B depending on r only, not θ,ϕ, and the angular part being exactly r2dΩ2.
((b)) For this ansatz, after rescaling t so that A=−B, the vacuum field equation Rθθ=0 reduces to drd(re−2B)=1. Solve this equation for e−2B(r), and fix the constant of integration by matching gtt to the weak-field metric of a mass M at large r.
((c)) The Kretschmann scalar of this solution is K=48G2M2/(c4r6). Show that K is finite at r=rs=2GM/c2 (give its value in terms of G, M, c) but diverges as r→0, and explain why this identifies r=0, not r=rs, as a genuine curvature singularity.
((d)) In ingoing Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates (vEF,r,θ,ϕ), with vEF=t+r∗/c, the metric is ds2=−(1−rrs)c2dvEF2+2cdvEFdr+r2dΩ2. Show that every metric component is finite at r=rs and that the metric determinant g=−c2r4sin2θ is non-zero there, and explain why this, rather than the finite Kretschmann scalar of part (c), is what shows the misbehaviour of the original (t,r) coordinates at rs is a coordinate artefact.