The geometry of the constant gravitational field

Abstract

The complete title of this paper should be “The geometry of the constant gravitational field or how to switch from the mechanical Lagrangian to a geometric Lagrangian” and in this abstract we sketch why. To begin with, let us say that Einstein managed to integrate the constant gravitational field in the special theory of relativity, obtaining a metric whose geodesics are locally parabolas. The existence of a similar metric deduced from the considerations of Newtonian mechanics is somehow obstructed by the Lagrangian involved in the description of the constant gravitational field. Therefore, we need to explain how the mechanical Lagrangian above which is not suitable for a metric description of the constant gravitational field can be switched into a geometrical Lagrangian having the same geodesics and suitable for the metric description of the constant gravitational field. The geometric method found by us is related to a parabolic type of transformations. A consequence of the previous method can be applied for the study of bending of light rays in a constant gravitational field.