2020/10/25 by Shaofan Liu, Liu Zhao, Liu, Shaofan +1
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Classical mechanics #Coordinate time #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #General relativity #Geometry #Gravitation #Gravitational field #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #Mathematical physics #Mathematics #Minkowski space #Motion (physics) #Observer (physics) #Physics #Proper time #Quantum #Quantum mechanics #Relativity and Gravitational Theory #Scalar (mathematics) #Scalar field #Schwarzschild radius #Spacetime #Theoretical physics #Unruh effect #Work (physics) #gr-qc #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2010.13071
21 pages. v3: Title changed and significant amendments involved
openalex publication_date 2020/10/25 · arxiv created 2021/11/16 · arxiv updated 2021/11/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The definitions of gravitational work as well as work done by the total external force on a massive probe particle moving in generic spacetime backgrounds are proposed. These definitions are given in the form of scalar integrals and thus, are independent of coordinate choices. However, the dependence on the choice of observer field is essential and inevitable. The definitions are checked in the case of Minkowski, Schwarzschild, Reisner-Nordström and Kerr-Newman spacetimes and agreements with Newtonian mechanical definitions are verified in the slow motion or the far field limit.