Symmetric Teleparallel General Relativity
Abstract
General relativity can be presented in terms of other geometries besides Riemannian. In particular, teleparallel geometry (i.e., curvature vanishes) has some advantages, especially concerning energy-momentum localization and its ``translational gauge theory'' nature. The standard version is metric compatible, with torsion representing the gravitational ``force''. However there are many other possibilities. Here we focus on an interesting alternate extreme: curvature and torsion vanish but the nonmetricity $\nabla g$ does not---it carries the ``gravitational force''. This {\it symmetric teleparallel} representation of general relativity covariantizes (and hence legitimizes) the usual coordinate calculations. The associated energy-momentum density is essentially the Einstein pseudotensor, but in this novel geometric representation it is a true tensor.
- Publication:
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Chinese Journal of Physics
- Pub Date:
- April 1999
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.gr-qc/9809049
- arXiv:
- arXiv:gr-qc/9809049
- Bibcode:
- 1999ChJPh..37..113N
- Keywords:
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- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
- E-Print:
- Plain TeX, 6 pages, no figures, minor improvements, accepted by Chinese Journal of Physics