Velocity addition formulas in Robertson-Walker spacetimes

Abstract

Universal velocity addition formulas analogous to the well-known formula in special relativity are found for four geometrically defined relative velocities in a large class of Robertson-Walker spacetimes. Explicit examples are given. The special relativity result is recovered as a special case, and it is shown that the spectroscopic relative velocity, in contrast to three other geometric relative velocities, follows the same addition law as in special relativity for comoving observers in Robertson-Walker cosmologies.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figure