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 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.
Cite
@article{arxiv.gr-qc/9809049,
title = {Symmetric teleparallel general relativity},
author = {J. M. Nester and H-J Yo},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/9809049},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
Plain TeX, 6 pages, no figures, minor improvements, accepted by Chinese Journal of Physics