Reverse Cauchy-Schwarz inequality for timelike vectors #
This file formalises the blueprint declaration lmm:reverse-cauchy-schwarz
(Chapter 10, sections/sec10/10-2_spacetime).
For a symmetric Lorentzian bilinear form g (signature diag(-1,1,1,1)) and two
timelike vectors v, w (i.e. g v v < 0, g w w < 0) the reverse Cauchy-Schwarz
inequality holds:
g v v * g w w ≤ (g v w) ^ 2.
The abstract statement reverse_cauchy_schwarz_of_lorentzianAt depends only on the
pointwise LorentzianAt condition, so it transfers verbatim to the metric g|_p of
any spacetime; Spacetime.reverse_cauchy_schwarz is that specialisation.
Proof strategy #
Expand v, w in a Lorentzian basis b, so g x y is the diagonal sum
-(x⁰y⁰) + x¹y¹ + x²y² + x³y³ of the coordinates xⁱ = b.repr x i. The vector
u = w⁰ • v - v⁰ • w has vanishing time coordinate, hence g u u ≥ 0; together with
the algebraic identity
(w⁰)² * ((g v w)² - g v v * g w w)
= (g v w * w⁰ - g w w * v⁰)² + (-(g w w)) * (g u u)
and w⁰ ≠ 0 (forced by g w w < 0) this gives the inequality.
Reverse Cauchy-Schwarz inequality for two timelike vectors of a symmetric Lorentzian bilinear form on a real four-dimensional vector space.
Reverse Cauchy-Schwarz inequality for the metric of a spacetime: two timelike
tangent vectors at a point satisfy g v v * g w w ≤ (g v w) ^ 2.