Entropy measures as geometrical tools in the study of cosmology

Gilbert Weinstein, Yosef Strauss, Sergey Bondarenko, Asher Yahalom, Meir Lewkowicz, Lawrence Paul Horwitz, Jacob Levitan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Classical chaos is often characterized as exponential divergence of nearby trajectories. In many interesting cases these trajectories can be identified with geodesic curves. We define here the entropy by S = ln χ(x) with χ(x) being the distance between two nearby geodesics. We derive an equation for the entropy, which by transformation to a Riccati-type equation becomes similar to the Jacobi equation. We further show that the geodesic equation for a null geodesic in a double-warped spacetime leads to the same entropy equation. By applying a Robertson-Walker metric for a flat three-dimensional Euclidean space expanding as a function of time, we again reach the entropy equation stressing the connection between the chosen entropy measure and time. We finally turn to the Raychaudhuri equation for expansion, which also is a Riccati equation similar to the transformed entropy equation. Those Riccati-type equations have solutions of the same form as the Jacobi equation. The Raychaudhuri equation can be transformed to a harmonic oscillator equation, and it has been shown that the geodesic deviation equation of Jacobi is essentially equivalent to that of a harmonic oscillator. The Raychaudhuri equations are strong geometrical tools in the study of general relativity and cosmology. We suggest a refined entropy measure applicable in cosmology and defined by the average deviation of the geodesics in a congruence.

Original languageEnglish
Article number6
JournalEntropy
Volume20
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2018

Keywords

  • Cosmology
  • General relativity
  • Raychaudhuri equations; entropy

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