In my classical mechanic course material, it states that
(In context of relativity) The path of a particle is called its "world line". Each world line can be noted mathematically using the parametric equation $x^\mu=x^\mu(\tau)$. Where $x^\mu$ is the position four-vector and $\tau$ is a Lorentz invariant. Symmetricity shows that the action integral of such particle can only be $$S = -mc\int ds = -mc \int d\tau \left(\frac{dx^\mu}{d\tau}\frac{dx_\mu}{d\tau} \right)^{1/2}$$
My questions are:
- What is this symmetricity that the paragraph is talking about?
- What is the Lagrangian here?
- Why is the action integral given as $S = -mc\int ds$? As most action I have encountered are in the form of $\int L(q,\dot{q},t) \mathrm{d}t$