Publication: Gravitation and the local symmetry group of space-time
Loading...
Date
Authors
Advisor
Coadvisor
Graduate program
Undergraduate course
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kluwer Academic/plenum Publ
Type
Article
Access right
Acesso restrito
Abstract
According to general relativity, the interaction of a matter field with gravitation requires the simultaneous introduction of a tetrad field, which is a field related to translations, and a spin connection, which is a field assuming values in the Lie algebra of the Lorentz group. These two fields, however, are not independent. By analyzing the constraint between them, it is concluded that the relevant local symmetry group behind general relativity is provided by the Lorentz group. Furthermore, it is shown that the minimal coupling prescription obtained from the Lorentz covariant derivative coincides exactly with the usual coupling prescription of general relativity. Instead of the tetrad, therefore, the spin connection is to be considered as the fundamental field representing gravitation.
Description
Keywords
general relativity, spin connection, tetrad, symmetry groups
Language
English
Citation
International Journal of Theoretical Physics. New York: Kluwer Academic/plenum Publ, v. 41, n. 4, p. 729-736, 2002.