GRAVITATION Charles W. MISNER Kip S. THORNE — John Archibald WHEELER LA W. H. FREEMAN AND COMPANY San FranciscoLitrars of Congress Cataloging In Pabileati Misner, Charles W, (932- Gasiution. Bibtiograpiy: ps 1 Grivistoe. 2. Astrophysics. 3. General relativity Phys) T Thoth. Kip S, 1940. sint asthoe T. Wheeler, Jobe Arckibald. 1918” ein eather MM Tite, QCU7B.NST sara Tses36098 TSBN 0-7167.034-3 ISBN 07167-08460 cpbs Copyright @ 1970 ané 197) by Chace WE. Mor Kip 5. Thorre, and Joho Aretbald Wheater Copyright © 1973 by W. Hl, Fresmun ane! Company. No part of this hock may be reproduccs by ary modtuniel. photographic, or cletromic proces, for in the form of s phonegraphie recording, ‘Bor maay tbe stored ia a revdevl sysem, tanec for etherwise eopied for public or private use without the writen petatssion ¢f the publisher. Prins in the Valted States of Ame WN DB 1S 67 89 KP B98TESAIZ1SIGN CONVENTIONS ‘This book follows the “Landau-Lifshitz Spacelike Convention” (LLSC). Arrows below mark signs that are “+” in it. The facing table shows signs that other authors (wy? + (UY (wy? + (wy? +94, v) = VV, — WY ~ Yow FRM ag = Oy leg — Oy lrg + Eb ad ay — Cop Te Riemann sign «col. 3) rt Ray = Rap ea quotient of Einstein and Riemann signs Einstein = +8T 1 4 = Ree ZB = +807 Ty, = Teg, e),> 0 all authors agree --—— on this “positive energy density” sign ‘The above sign choice for Riemann is convenient for coordinate-free methods, as in the curvature operator (4, v) above, in the curvature 2-forms (equation 14.19), and for matrix computations (exercise 14.9). The definitions of Ricei and Einstein with the signs adopted above are those that make their eigenvalues (and R = R#,) positive for standard spheres with positive definite metrics,TABLE OF SIGN CONVENTIONS. s 3 Spacetime Reference of i o four-dimensional 9 & & indices Landau, Lifshitz (1962) “spacelike convention” + + + latin Landau, Lifshitz (1971) “timelike convention™ - + + latin Misner, Thorne, Wheeler (1973: this text) + + + greek Adler, Buzin, Schiffer (1965) - ~ ~ greek Anderson (1967) - - = greck Bergmann (1942) = s - greek Cartan (1946) _ _ Davis (1970) _ + - latin Eddington (1922) - + - greek Ehlers (1971) + + latin Einstein (1950) - + ~ greek Eisenhart (1926) + - Fock (1959) ~ = ~ greek Fokker (1965) _ _ + latin Hawking and Ellis (1973) + + + latin Hicks (1965) + + Infeld, Plebanski (1960) ~ + ~ greek Lichnerowicz (1955) ~ + + greek MeVitiie (1956) - + - greek Misner (1969) + + + greek Maller (1952) + ~ - latin Pauli (1958) + — _ latin Penrose (1968) ~ — - Jaun Pirani (1965) _ - _ Jatin Robertson, Noonan (1968) + + _ latin Sachs (1964) + + + laun Schild (1967) - + - Jatin Schouten (1954) - + Schroedinger (1950) - + - latin Synge (1960b) + _ latin Thorne (1967) - + + greek Tolman (1934a} — + ~ greck Trautman (1965) - - ~ latin Weber (1961) + + + greek Weinberg (1972) + - - ereek ‘Weyl (1922) - + + Jatin Wheeler (19640) + + + ereck inusual index positioning on Riemann components gives a different sign fOr Ryvap bNote: his & <0 is the negative of the gravitational constant,We dedicate this book To our fellow citizens Who, for love of truth, Take from their own wants By taxes and gifts, And now and then send forth One of themselves As dedicated servant, To forward the search Into the mysteries and marvelous simplicities Of this strange and beautiful Universe, Our home.PREFACE This is a textbook on gravitation physics (Einstein's “general relativity” or “geo- metrodynamies"), It supplies two tracks through the subject. The fist track is focused! con the key physical ideas. It assumes, as mathematical prerequisite, only vector analysis and simple partial-differential equations. [tis suitable for a one-semester course at the junior or senior level or in graduate school; and it constitutes—in the opinion of the awthors—the indispensable core of gtavitation theory that every ‘advanced student of physics should learn, The Track-l material is contained in those peges of the book that have # 1 outlined in gray in the upper outside comer, by which the eye of the reader can quickly pick out the Track-1 sections, In the eon tents, the same purpose is served by @ gray bar beside the section, box, or figtfe number. ‘The rest of the text builds up Track | into Track 2, Readers and teachers are invited to select, as enrichment material, thos: portions of Track 2 that interest them most, With a few exceptions, any Track-2 chapter can be understood by readers ‘who have studied only the earlier Track-1 material. The exceptions are spelled out explicitly in dependency statements” located at the beginning of each Track-2 chapter, or at each transition within chapter from Track | to ‘Track 2 The entire book (all of Track I plus all of Track 2) is designed for a rigorous, full-year course at the graduate level, though many teachers of z full-year course may prefer a more leisurely pace that omits some of the Track-2 material, The fell book is intended to give # competence in gravitation physics comparable to that which the average Ph.D, has in electromagnetism. When the student achieves this cornpetence, he knows the lews of physics in flat spacetime (Chgpters 1-7), He can predict orders of magnitude, He can also caloulate using the principal tools of modern Cifferemtial geometry (Chaptets 8-15), and he ean prediet at all relevant levels of piecision, He understands Einstein's geometric ftemework for physies (Chaptersvii GraviTarion 16-22), He knows the applications of greatest present-dey interest: pulsers and neutron stars (Chapters 23-26); cosmology (Chapters 27-30); the Schwareschile geometry and gravitational collapse (Chapters 31-34); and gravitational waves (Chapters 35-37), He has probed the experimental tests of Einstein's theory (Chap- ters 38-40), He will be able to read the modern mathematical ltereture on differential geometry, and also the latest papers in the physics and astrophysics journals about gcometrodynamics and its applications. [fhe wishes to go beyond the field equations, the four major applications, and the tests, he will find at the end of the book (Chapters 41-44) a brief survey of several advanced topics in general relativity. Among the topics touched on here, superspace and quantum geometrodynamics teccive special attention, These chapters identify some of the outstanding physical issues and lines of investigation being pursued today. Whether the department is physics or astrophysics or mathematics, more students than ever ask for more about general relativity then mere conversation. They want to hear its principal theses clearly stated. They want to know how to “work the handles of its information pump” themselves. More universities than ever respond with a serious course in Einstein's standard 1915 geometrodynamics. What ¢ contrast to Maxwell's standard 1864 electrodynamics! In 1897, when Einstein was a student at Zurich, this subject was not on the instructional calendar of even half the Universities of Europe! “We waited in vain for an exposition of Maxwell's theory,” says one of Einstein's classmates. “Above all it was Binstein who was disappointed,"? for he rated electrodynamics 2s “the most fascinating subject at the time">—as many students rate Einstein's theory today Maxwell's theory recalls Einstein's theory in the time it took to win acceptance, Even asslate as 1904 a book could appear by so great an investigator as Willian ‘Thomson, Lord Kelvin, with the words, “The so-called “electromagnetic theory of light’ has not helped us hitherto... it seems to me that it is rather « backward step... the one thing about it that seems intelligible to me, I do not think is admissible . .. that there should be an cleciric displacement perpendicular to the line of propagation.” § Did the pioneer of the Atlantic cable in the end contribute so richly to Maxwell electrodynamics—from units, and principles of measurement, to the theory of waves guided by wires—because of his own carly dilficelties with the subject? Then there is hope for many who study Einstein’s geometrodynamics today! By the 1920's the weight of developments, fram Kelvin’s cable 10 Maron's wireless, from the atom of Rutherford and Bohr to the new technology of high- frequency circuits, had produced general conviction that Maxwell was night, Doubt dwindled, Confidence led to applications, and applications led 10 confidence. Many were slow 10 take up general relativity in the beginning because it seemed to be poor in applications, Binstein's theory attracts the interest of many today because it is rich in applications, No longer is zttemtion confined fo three femous but meager tests: the gravitational red shift, the bending of ligt by the sun, and 2G, Holton 41955), 94, Einstein (1949. PL, Kaabros (1956) SW. Thosnsex (190), Cations for referenees aa be found te bibliography”PREFACE co the precession of the perihelion of Mercury around the sun. The combination of radar ranging end general relativity is, step by step, transforming the solar-system celestial mechanics of an older generation 10 a new subject, with & new level of precision, new kinds of effects, and a new outlook. Pulsars, discovered in 1968, find ro acceptable explanation except as the neutron stars predicted in 1934, objects with a central density so high (~10g/cm') that the Einstein predictions of mass eifler from the Newtonian predictions by 10 to 100 per cent. About further density increase and a final continued gravitational collapse, Newtonian theory is silent, [n contrest, Einstein's standard 1915 geometrodynamics predicted in 1939 the properties of & completely collapsed object. a “frozen star” or “black hole.” By 1966 detailed digital calculations were availeble describing the formation of such an object in the collapse of a star with a white-dwarf core. Today hope to discover the first black hole is niot least among the forces propelling more than one research: How does rotation influence the properties of a black bole? What kind of pulse of gravitational radiation comes off when such an object is formed? What spectrum of x-rays emerges when {gts from a compsnion star piles up on its way into # black hole?® All such investi gations and more base themselves on Schwarzschild’s standard 1916 static and spherically symmetiic solution of Einstein’s field equations, fist really understood in the modern sense in 1960, and in 1963 generalized to a black hole endowed with, angular momentum. Beyond solar-system tests and applications of relativity, beyond polsers. neutron stars, andl black holes, beyond geometrostatics (compare electrostatics!) and station- ary geometries (compare the magnetic feld set up by a steady current!) lies geo- mietrodynamics in the full sense of the word (compare electrodynamics!), Nowhere does Einstein's preat conception stand out more clearly than here, that the geometry of space is a new physical entity, with degrees of freedom and s dynamics of its own, Deformations in the geometry of space, he predicted in 1918, can transport cuergy from place to place. Today, thanks to the initiative of Joseph Weber, detectors of such gravitetional radiation Reve been constructed and exploited to give upper limits to the fiux of energy streaming past the earth at selected frequencies. Never before has one realized from how many kinds of processes significant gravitational radiation can be anticipated, Never before bas there been more interest in picking up this new kind of signal and using it to diagnose faraway events. Never before has there been such a drive in more than one laboratory to raise instrumental sensitivity until gravitational radiation becomes a workeday new window on the universe. ‘The expansion of the universe is the greatest of all tests of Einstein’s geometo- dynamics, end cosmology the greatest of all applications. Making a prediction too fentastic for its autor to credit, the theory forecast the expansion years before it ‘was observed (1929). Violating the short time-scale that Hubble gave for the expan- sion, and in the face of “theories” ("steady state”; “continuous creation”) manufac tured to welcome and utilize this short time-scale, standard general relativity resolutely persisted in the prediction of « long time-scale, decades before the asteo- "as of April (973, enore nee Signieaneinccaions that Cygnus Xl and ether compact xray cote may be black hetx GRAVITATION physical discovery (1952) that the Hubble scale of distances and times was wrong, and had to be stretched by a factor of more than five. Disegreeing by a factor of the order of thirty with the average density of mass-energy in the universe deduced, from astrophysical evidence as recently as 1958, Einstein’s theory now 2s in the past argues for the higher density, proclaims “the mystery of the missing matter,” and encourages astrophysics in a continuing search that year by year turns up new indications of matter in the space between the galaxies, General relativity forecast the primordial cosmic fireball radiation, and even en approximate value for its present temperature, seventeen years before the radiation was discovered. This ‘radiation brings information about the universe when it had a thousand times smaller linear dimensions, and a billion times smaller volume, than it does today, Quasistellar objects, discovered in 1963, sepply more éctailed information from a more recent era, when the universe had a quarter to helf its present linear dimensions. Telling about a stage in the evolution of galaxies end the universe reachable in no other way, these objects are more than beacons to light up the far away and long ago. ‘They put out energy at a rate unparalleled anywhere else in the universe. They ject ‘matter with @ surprising directivity. They show e puzzling variation with time. different between the microwave and the visible part of the spectrum. Quasistellar objects on a great scale, and galactic nuclei nearer at hand on a smaller scale, voice 2 challenge to general relativity: help clear up these mysteries! If its wealth of applications attracts many young astrophysicists to the study of Binstein’s geometrodynamics, the same attraction draws those in the world of physics who are concemed with physical cosmology, experimental general relativity, grav tational raiation, and the properties of objects made out of superdense matter. OF quite another motive for study of the subject, to contemplate Einstein's inspiring vision of geometry as the machinery of physics, we shall say nothing here because it speaks out, we hope, in every chapter of this book. Why 2 new book? The new applications of general relativity, with their extreor- dinary physical interest, outdate excellent textbooks of an catlier era, among them even that great treatise on the subject written by Wolfgang Pauli at the age of twenty-one, In addition, differential geometry has undergone a transformation of outlook that isolates the student who is confined in his training to the traditional tensor calculus of the earlier texts. For fim itis dificalt or impossible either to read {he writings of his up-to-date mathematical colleague orto explain the matirematical content of his physical problem to that friendly source of help. We have not seen any way to meet our responsibilities to our students at our three institutions except by a new exposition, aimed at establishing 2 solid competence in the subject, con- ‘emporary in its mathematics, oriented to the physical and astrophysical applications of greatest present-day interest, amd animated by belief in the beauty and simplicity of nature. High Island Charles W. Misner Soush Bristol, Maine Kip 8. Thorne September 4, 1972 Jolin Archibald WheelerBOXES xxi FIGURES xiv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xxvii CONTENTS Part! SPACETIME PHYSICS 1 1, Geometrodynamies in Briel 3 The Parable of the Apple 3 Spacetime With and Without Coordinates & Weightlessness 13 Local Lorente Geometry, With end Without Coordinates Time 23 Curvature 29 Effect of Mauer on Geometry 37 Part Il PHYSICS IN FLAT SPACETIME 45 2, Foundations of Special Relativity 47 Sepvomnana Overview 47 Geometric Objects 48 Vectors 49 The Metric Tensor 31 Differential Forms 53. Gradients anc Directional Derivatives 52 Coordinate Representation of Geometric Objects 60 The Centrifuge and the Photon 83 Lorantz Transfermations 86 Calisions 69 19GRAVITATION 3. The Electromagnetio Field 77 1] The Lorerme Force and the Electromagnetic Field Tensor 71 2.| Tensors in All Generaity 74 3.| Three Plus-One View Versus Georotre View 78 4] Maxwell's Equations 73 8.f Warking with Tensors 81 4. Electromagnotism and Differential Forms 90) 1. Exterior Calculus 90 2. Elesttomagnetie 2-Forr and Lorentz Force 98 2 Farms illuminate Electromagnatism and Electromagnetism llluminates Forms 105 4 Radiation Fiele’s 110 5 Maxwell's Equations 112 6, Emerior Dorivative ang Closed Forms 114 7. Distant Action fram Local Lew 120 5. Stress-Energy Tensor and Conservation Laws 130 11 Track-t Overview 130 2) Three-Dimensional Volumes and Definition of the Stross-Enorgy Tensor 130 3 Components of Stress-Energy Tensor 137 4. Stiess-Energy Tensor Tor @ Swarm of Particles 138 5. Stress Energy Tensor for a Parfect Fluid 139 8. Electromagnetic Stress-Energy 140) 7, Symmatty of the Strass-Eneray Tensor 147 8. Conservation of 4-Mamentum: Intagral Formulation 142 9. Conservation of &Momenturn: Differential Formulation 146 10. Sample Application of ¥- T= 0 152 11. Angular Momentum 186 6 Accelerated Observers 163 1. Accelerated Observars Can Be Analyzed Using Special Relativity 163 2) Ryperoelic Motion 168. 3. Constraints on Size of an Accelerated Frame 168. 4. Tha Tetrad Carried by a Uniformly Accelerated Observer 169) 5. Tha Tevrad Fermi-Walker Transported by an Observer with Arbitrary Acceleration 170, 6. The Local Coordinate System of an Accelerated Observer 172 7. Incompatibility of Gravity and Special Relativity 177 1, Attempts to Incerparate Gravity into Special Relativity 177 2. Gravitational Redshift Derivad from Energy Conservation 187 3. Gravitational Redshift Implies Spacotimo Is Curved 187 4. Gravitational Redshit ae Evidence for the Prineipla of Equivalence 189 3 Local Flatness, Global Curvature 190 Part Ill THE MATHEMATICS OF CURVED SPACETIME 193 8, Differential Geometry: An Overview 195 opens Ao Overview of Part Il 195, Track 1 Versus Track 2: Difference in Ouileok and Power 197 Throe Aspacis of Geometry: Pictorial, Abstract, Camponont 198 Tensor Algebra in Curved Spacetime 201 Pavallol Tansport, Covariant Derivative, Connection Coaffcisnts, Geadestes 207, Local Lorent2 Frames Mathematical Discussion 217 Geodesic Deviation and the Riemann Curvature Tensor 218,