Related papers: Is torsion needed in theory of gravity?
It is known that General Relativity ({\bf GR}) uses a Lorentzian Manifold $(M_4;g)$ as a geometrical model of the physical spacetime. The metric $g$ is required to satisfy Einstein's equations. Since the 1960s many authors have tried to…
The role played by torsion in gravitation is critically reviewed. After a description of the problems and controversies involving the physics of torsion, a comprehensive presentation of the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity is…
Ever since E.Cartan in the 1920s enriched the geometric framework of general relativity (GR) by introducing a {\it torsion} of spacetime, the question arose whether one could find a measurement technique for detecting the presence of a…
A hypothesis of general relativity is that spacetime torsion vanishes identically. This assumption has no empirical support; in fact, a nonvanishing torsion is compatible with all the experimental tests of general relativity. The first part…
The Einsteinian Theory of Gravitation ("General Theory of Relativity") is founded essentially; on the reception that the geometrical properties of the 4-dimensional space-time continuum are defined from the matter in it. Contrary to this,…
The mantra about gravitation as curvature is a misnomer. The curvature tensor for a standard of rest does not describe acceleration in a gravitational field but the \underline{gradient} of the acceleration (e.g. geodesic deviation). The…
Under normal circumstances most members of the general relativity community focus almost exclusively on the local properties of spacetime, such as the locally Euclidean structure of the manifold and the Lorentzian signature of the metric…
The standard theory of General Relativity (GR) currently provides the most reliable description of all gravitational events in Astrophysics and Cosmology. However, current Astronomy allows measurements that contradict the predictions of GR…
The question of the existence of gravitational stress-energy in general relativity has exercised investigators in the field since the inception of the theory. Folklore has it that no adequate definition of a localized gravitational…
The geometrical nature of gravity emerges from the universality dictated by the equivalence principle. In the usual formulation of General Relativity, the geometrisation of the gravitational interaction is performed in terms of the…
The Einstein equations, apart from being the classical field equations of General Relativity, are also the classical field equations of two other theories of gravity. As the experimental tests of General Relativity are done using the…
The role of space-time torsion in general relativity is reviewed in accordance with some recent results on the subject. It is shown that, according to the connection compatibility condition, the usual Riemannian volume element is not…
Modifications of standard general relativity that bring torsion into a game have a long-standing history. However, no convincing arguments exist for or against its presence in physically acceptable gravity models. In this Letter, we provide…
We set up an Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory in four dimensions, based on the recent formulation of pure gravity with extra dimensions of vanishing metrical length [1]. In absence of torsion, the effective field equations depend only on the…
The construction of conformally invariant gauge conditions for Maxwell and Einstein theories on a manifold M is found to involve two basic ingredients. First, covariant derivatives of a linear gauge (e.g. Lorenz or de Donder), completely…
In this work we consider gravitational theories in which the effect of coupling characteristic classes, appropriately introduced as operators in the Einstein-Hilbert action, has been taken into account. As it is well known, this approach…
f(R)-gravity with geometric torsion (not related to any spin fluid) is considered in a cosmological context. We derive the field equations in vacuum and in presence of perfect-fluid matter and discuss the related cosmological models.…
We consider a theory of gravity with a hidden extra-dimension and metric-dependent torsion. A set of physically motivated constraints are imposed on the geometry so that the torsion stays confined to the extra-dimension and the…
According to the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity, curvature and torsion are two equivalent ways of describing the same gravitational field. Despite equivalent, however, they act differently: whereas curvature yields a…
Two Lagrangian functions are used to construct geometric field theories. One of these Lagrangians depends on the curvature of space, while the other depends on curvature and torsion. It is shown that the theory constructed from the first…