Geodesically equivalent metrics in general relativity

Abstract

We discuss whether it is possible to reconstruct a metric by its unparameterized geodesics, and how to do it effectively. We explain why this problem is interesting for general relativity. We show how to understand whether all curves from a sufficiently big family are umparameterized geodesics of a certain affine connection, and how to reconstruct algorithmically a generic 4-dimensional metric by its unparameterized geodesics. The algorithm works most effectively if the metric is Ricci-flat. We also prove that almost every metric does not allow nontrivial geodesic equivalence, and construct all pairs of 4-dimensional geodesically equivalent metrics of Lorenz signature.