PHYS 458, FALL 2010

This take-home midterm exam is due on Monday, November 8th, at 2 pm, in class. It consists of
two parts - one of shorter questions (valued at 3%) and one with a longer problem valued at 5%.

Part I: This part consists of 5 short questions at 3% each to the total of 15%. They are rather
straightforward, but may require a moment of thought or a short calculation. Don’t write
extensive essays, answer as precisely as possible.

1. Which of the intervals in Fig. 1 are time-like, space-like or null ?

ct

(a)
(b)
(c)

Figure 1: Diagram of Minkowski space-time. Light cone of the event at origin is shown in dashed
line (scales of the ct and x axes are the same)
√
2. The world line plotted in Fig 2 is given by equation ct = 2x. Determine where it
becomes space-like and evaluate the length of the interval along this line between the
origin and the event of this transition.
ct

√
Figure 2: World line described by ct = 2x. The graph is a little approximate.

3. Two observers (red and blue) part, travel along their world lines in Minkowski space-
time and meet again. Clock of which observer will show shorter time of travel when they
meet ? Consider separately cases (a) and (b) No additional info, particularly the exact
shape of the red curve, is to be considered known.

1
 ct
(b)

(a)

Figure 3: Two cases of the observer pairs (blue and red) that separate in the initial event, travel
along their separate world lines and meet at the final event. My drawing of red world-line is
approximate - you should assume it is always appropriately time-like.

4. Observer at rest in Minkowski frame sends a photon of frequency ν which is received

by accelerated Rindler observer at moment τ . What frequency, as a function of τ does
Rindler observer register ?
5. Compute the connection (Christoffel) coefficients Γαβγ in 2D (α, β... = 0, 1) Rindler space
which metric is given by (c is set to unity)

ds2 = −X 2 dτ 2 + dX 2 (1)

(recall how you can read off the metric tensor from the expression for the interval)

Part II: Show explicitly that the equation of geodesic wrt affine parameter λ

d2 xα β
α dx dx
γ
+ Γ βγ =0 (2)
dλ2 dλ dλ
is invariant under arbitrary coordinate transformations xα0 (xα )