Search results for "83C99"
showing 3 items of 3 documents
Relative velocities, geometry, and expansion of space
2012
What does it mean to say that space expands? One approach to this question is the study of relative velocities. In this context, a non local test particle is "superluminal" if its relative velocity exceeds the local speed of light of the observer. The existence of superluminal relative velocities of receding test particles, in a particular cosmological model, suggests itself as a possible criterion for expansion of space in that model. In this point of view, superluminal velocities of distant receding galaxy clusters result from the expansion of space between the observer and the clusters. However, there is a fundamental ambiguity that must be resolved before this approach can be meaningful…
A note on the computation of geometrically defined relative velocities
2011
We discuss some aspects about the computation of kinematic, spectroscopic, Fermi and astrometric relative velocities that are geometrically defined in general relativity. Mainly, we state that kinematic and spectroscopic relative velocities only depend on the 4-velocities of the observer and the test particle, unlike Fermi and astrometric relative velocities, that also depend on the acceleration of the observer and the corresponding relative position of the test particle, but only at the event of observation and not around it, as it would be deduced, in principle, from the definition of these velocities. Finally, we propose an open problem in general relativity that consists on finding intr…
Relative velocities for radial motion in expanding Robertson-Walker spacetimes
2011
The expansion of space, and other geometric properties of cosmological models, can be studied using geometrically defined notions of relative velocity. In this paper, we consider test particles undergoing radial motion relative to comoving (geodesic) observers in Robertson-Walker cosmologies, whose scale factors are increasing functions of cosmological time. Analytical and numerical comparisons of the Fermi, kinematic, astrometric, and the spectroscopic relative velocities of test particles are given under general circumstances. Examples include recessional comoving test particles in the de Sitter universe, the radiation-dominated universe, and the matter-dominated universe. Three distinct …