The Motion of Small Bodies in Space-Time
Abstract
We consider the motion of small bodies in general relativity. The key result captures a sense in which such bodies follow timelike geodesics (or, in the case of charged bodies, Lorentz-force curves). This result clarifies the relationship between approaches that model such bodies as distributions supported on a curve, and those that employ smooth fields supported in small neighborhoods of a curve. This result also applies to “bodies” constructed from wave packets of Maxwell or Klein–Gordon fields. There follows a simple and precise formulation of the optical limit for Maxwell fields.
Many UC-authored scholarly publications are freely available on this site because of the UC's open access policies. Let us know how this access is important for you.