This lecture note is hopefully helpful to undergraduate and postgraduate students or beginning Ph.D students both in theoretical physics and in applied mathematics. Modern terminology in differential geometry has been discussed in the book with the motivation of geometrical or pictorial way of thinking. This note is an effort of teaching differential geometry and shows its wide applicability to relativity theory. The problems in this lecture note may be useful to the students
We review the language of differential forms and their applications to Riemannian Geometry with an orientation to General Relativity. Working with the principal algebraic and differential operations on forms, we obtain the structure equations and their symmetries in terms of a new product (the co-multiplication). It is showen how the Cartan - Grassmann algebra can be endowed with the structure of a Hopf algebra.
A formulation for stationary axisymmetric electromagnetic fields in general relativity is derived by casting them into the form of an anisotropic fluid. Several simplifications of the formalism are carried out in order to analyze different features of the fields, such as the derivation of electromagnetic sources for the Maxwell field in the form of thin layers, construction of new solutions, and generation techniques.
Recently, Choquet-Bruhat and York and Abrahams, Anderson, Choquet-Bruhat, and York (AACY) have cast the 3+1 evolution equations of general relativity in gauge-covariant and causal ``first-order symmetric hyperbolic form,'' thereby cleanly separating physical from gauge degrees of freedom in the Cauchy problem for general relativity. A key ingredient in their construction is a certain wave equation which governs the light-speed propagation of the extrinsic curvature tensor. Along a similar line, we construct a related wave equation which, as the key equation in a system, describes vacuum genera…
In this article we describe applications of Discrete Differential Forms in computational GR. In particular we consider the initial value problem in vacuum space-times that are spherically symmetric. The motivation to investigate this method is mainly its manifest coordinate independence. Three numerical schemes are introduced, the results of which are compared with the corresponding analytic solutions. The error of two schemes converges quadratically to zero. For one scheme the errors depend strongly on the initial data.
W.Lawvere suggested a approach to differential geometry and to others mathematical disciplines closed to physics, which allows to give definitions of derivatives, tangent vectors and tangent bundles without passages to the limits. This approach is based on a idea of consideration of all settings not in sets but in some cartesian closed category E, particular in some elementary topos. The synthetic differential geometry (SDG) is the theory developed by A.Kock in a context of Lawvere's ideas. In a base of the theory is an assumption of that a geometric line is not a filed of real numbers, but a …
The new approach to quantize the gravity based on the notion of differential algebra is suggested. It is shown that the differential geometry of this object can not be described in terms of points. The spatialization procedure giving rise to points by loosing a part of the entire structure is discussed. The counterpart of the traditional objects of differential geometry are studied.
Recently, there have been several applications of differential and algebraic topology to problems concerned with the global structure of spacetimes. In this paper, we derive obstructions to the existence of spin-Lorentz and pin-Lorentz cobordisms and we show that for compact spacetimes with non-empty boundary there is no relationship between the homotopy type of the Lorentz metric and the causal structure. We also point out that spin-Lorentz and tetrad cobordism are equivalent. Furthermore, because the original work [7] on metric homotopy and causality may not be known to a wide audience, we p…
The tetrad partial differential equations formulated by Buchman and Bardeen for vacuum gravity are shown to be well posed by calculation of the Cartan characters of an associated exterior differential system. Gauge specializations are discussed. A Cartan 4-form is found for this field theory, together with its intrinsic version the Lagrangian density.
It is well known that the Lorentzian length of a timelike curve in Minkowski spacetime is smaller than the Lorentzian length of the geodesic connecting its initial and final endpoints. The difference is known as the 'differential aging' and its calculation in terms of the proper acceleration history of the timelike curve would provide an important tool for the autonomous spacetime navigation of non-inertial observers. I give a solution in 3+1 dimensions which holds whenever the acceleration is decomposed with respect to a lightlike transported frame (lightlike transport will be defined), the a…
A differential bulk-surface relation of the lagrangian of General Relativity has been derived by Padmanabhan. This has relevance to gravitational information and degrees of freedom. An alternate derivation is given based on the differential form gauge theory formulation of gravity due to Gockeler and Schucker. Also an entropy functional of Padmanabhan and Paranjape can be rewritten as the Gockeler and Schucker lagrangian.
A highly accurate, multi-domain spectral code is used in order to construct sequences of general relativistic, differentially rotating neutron stars in axisymmetry and stationarity. For bodies with a spheroidal topology and a homogeneous or an N=1 polytropic equation of state, we investigate the solution space corresponding to broad ranges of degree of differential rotation and stellar densities. In particular, starting from static and spherical configurations, we analyse the changes of the corresponding surface shapes as the rate of rotation is increased. For a sufficiently weak degree of dif…
In a recent work we derived the kinematic Hamiltonian and primary constraints of the new general relativity class of teleparallel gravity theories and showed that these theories can be grouped in 9 classes, based on the presence or absence of primary constraints in their Hamiltonian. Here we demonstrate an alternative approach towards this result, by using differential forms instead of tensor components throughout the calculation. We prove that also this alternative derivation yields the same results and show how they are related to each other.
We briefly review a few aspects of the development of differential geometry which may be considered as being influenced by Einstein's general relativity. We focus on how Einstein's quest for a complete geometrization of matter and electromagnetism gave rise to an enormous amount of theoretical work both on physics and mathematics. In connection with this we also bring to light how recent investigation on theoretical physics has led to new results on some branches of modern differential geometry.
In these lectures my aim is to review enough of conformal differential geometry in four dimensions to give an account of Penrose's conformal cyclic geometry.
We study the behavior of clocks in 1+1 spacetime assuming the relativity principle, the principle of constancy of the speed of light and the clock hypothesis. These requirements are satisfied by a class of Finslerian theories parametrized by a real coefficient $β$, special relativity being recovered for $β=0$. The effect of differential aging is studied for the different values of $β$. Below the critical values $|β| =1/c$ the differential aging has the usual direction - after a round trip the accelerated observer returns younger than the twin at rest in the inertial frame - while above the cri…
In this paper the relation between the choice of a differential structure and a smooth connection in the tangential bundle is discussed. For the case of an exotic $S^7$ one obtains corrections to the curvature after the change of the differential structure, which can not be neglected by a gauge transformation. In the more interesting case of four dimensions we obtain a correction of the connection constructed by intersections of embedded surfaces. This correction produce a source term in the equation of the general relativity theory which can be interpreted as the energy-momentum tensor of a e…
In this paper, we study the thick brane system in the so-called $f(Q)$ gravity, where the gravitational interaction was encoded by the nonmetricity $Q$ like scalar curvature $R$ in general relativity. With a special choice of $f(Q)=Q-b Q^n$, we find that the thick brane system can be solved analytically with the first-order formalism, where the complicated second-order differential equation is transformed to several first-order differential equations. Moreover, the stability of the thick brane system under tensor perturbation is also investigated. It is shown that the tachyonic states are abse…
We argue that space-time geometry is not absolute with respect to the frame of reference being used. The space-time metric differential form $ds$ in noninertial frames of reference (NIFR) is caused by the properties of the used frames in accordance with the Berkley - Leibnitz - Mach - Poincaré ideas about relativity of space and time . It is shown that the Sagnac effect and the existence of inertial forces in NIFR can be considered from this point of view. An experimental test is proposed.
In the present work, metrics which lead to projected closed orbits are found by comparing the relativistic differential equation of orbits with the corresponding classical differential equation. Physical and geometrical properties of these peculiar spacetimes are derived and discussed. It is also shown that some of these spacetimes belong to the broader class of the Bertrand spacetimes.
Detecting Free-Mass Common-Mode Motion Induced by Incident Gravitational Waves: Testing General Relativity and Source Direction via Fox-Smith and Michelson Interferometers
The dynamics of general relativity is encoded in a set of ten differential equations, the so-called Einstein field equations. It is usually believed that Einstein's equations represent a physical law describing the coupling of spacetime with material fields. However, just six of these equations actually describe the coupling mechanism: the remaining four represent a set of differential relations known as Bianchi identities. The paper discusses the physical role that the Bianchi identities play in general relativity, and investigates whether these identities -- qua part of a physical law -- hig…
Rapidly and differentially rotating compact stars are believed to be formed in binary neutron star merger events, according to both numerical simulations and the multi-messenger observation of GW170817. The lifetime and evolution of such a differentially rotating star, is tightly related to the observations in the post-merger phase. Various studies on the maximum mass of differentially rotating neutron stars have been done in the past, most of which assume the so-called $j$-const law as the rotation profile inside the star and consider only neutron star equations of state. In this paper, we ex…
We have developed a new tool for numerical work in General Relativity: GRworkbench. While past tools have been ad hoc, GRworkbench closely follows the framework of Differential Geometry to provide a robust and general way of computing on analytically defined space-times. We discuss the relationship between Differential Geometry and C++ classes in GRworkbench, and demonstrate their utility.
The differential equations, which are used for matter perturbations, are usually derived from the Newton gravity and the Euler equation in the expanded universe. In this paper, by the explicit calculations of metric perturbation theory in $Λ$CDM model, we derive the general relativistic corrections exactly for the equations and show that the differential equations derived from the Newton gravity and the Euler equation are valid in the small scale region from non-relativistic matter dominant era onwards. However the corrections are not negligible in radiation dominant era.
The smooth gravitational singularities of the differential spacetime manifold based General Relativity (GR) are viewed from the perspective of the background manifold independent and, in extenso, Calculus-free Abstract Differential Geometry (ADG). In particular, the inner Schwarzschild singularity is being `resolved' ADG-theoretically in two different ways. A plethora of important mathematical, physical and philosophical issues in current classical and quantum gravity research are addressed and tackled.
The Sagnac effect can be described as the difference in travel time between two photons traveling along the same path in opposite directions. In this paper we explore the consequences of this characterisation in the context of General Relativity. We derive a general expression for this time difference in an arbitrary space-time for arbitrary paths. In general, this formula is not very useful since it involves solving a differential equation along the path. However, we also present special cases where a closed form expression for the time difference can be given. The main part of the paper deal…
An analysis of the work of Mira Fernandes on unitary theories is presented. First it is briefly mentioned the Portuguese scientific context of the 1920s. A short analysis of the extension of Riemann geometries to new generalized geometries with new affine connections, such as those of Weyl and Cartan, is given. Based on these new geometries, the unitary theories of the gravitational and electromagnetic fields, proposed by Weyl, Eddington, Einstein, and others are then explained. Finally, the book and one paper on connections and two papers on unitary theories, all written by Mira Fernandes, ar…
The software tool GRworkbench is an ongoing project in visual, numerical General Relativity at The Australian National University. Recently, GRworkbench has been significantly extended to facilitate numerical experimentation in analytically-defined space-times. The numerical differential geometric engine has been rewritten using functional programming techniques, enabling objects which are normally defined as functions in the formalism of differential geometry and General Relativity to be directly represented as function variables in the C++ code of GRworkbench. The new functional differential…
We study the magnetic braking and viscous damping of differential rotation in incompressible, uniform density stars in general relativity. Differentially rotating stars can support significantly more mass in equilibrium than nonrotating or uniformly rotating stars. The remnant of a binary neutron star merger or supernova core collapse may produce such a "hypermassive" neutron star. Although a hypermassive neutron star may be stable on a dynamical timescale, magnetic braking and viscous damping of differential rotation will ultimately alter the equilibrium structure, possibly leading to delayed…
Ising models of emergent geometry are well known to possess ground states with many of the desired features of a low dimensional, Ricci flat vacuum. Further, excitations of these ground states can be shown to replicate the quantum dynamics of a free particle in the continuum limit. It would be a significant next step in the development of emergent Ising models to link them to an underlying physical theory that has General Relativity as its continuum limit. In this work we investigate how the canonical formulation of General Relativity can be used to construct such a discrete Hamiltonian using …
In a quantum mechanical treatment of gauge theories (including general relativity), one is led to consider a certain completion, $\agb$, of the space $\ag$ of gauge equivalent connections. This space serves as the quantum configuration space, or, as the space of all Euclidean histories over which one must integrate in the quantum theory. $\agb$ is a very large space and serves as a ``universal home'' for measures in theories in which the Wilson loop observables are well-defined. In this paper, $\agb$ is considered as the projective limit of a projective family of compact Hausdorff manifolds, l…
As Harvey Brown emphasizes in his book Physical Relativity, inertial motion in general relativity is best understood as a theorem, and not a postulate. Here I discuss the status of the "conservation condition", which states that the energy-momentum tensor associated with non-interacting matter is covariantly divergence-free, in connection with such theorems. I argue that the conservation condition is best understood as a consequence of the differential equations governing the evolution of matter in general relativity and many other theories. I conclude by discussing what it means to posit a ce…
The importance of Einstein's geometrization philosophy, as an alternative to the least action principle, in constructing general relativity (GR), is illuminated. The role of differential identities in this philosophy is clarified. The use of Bianchi identity to write the field equations of GR is shown. Another similar identity in the absolute parallelism geometry is given. A more general differential identity in the parameterized absolute parallelism geometry is derived. Comparison and interrelationships between the above mentioned identities and their role in constructing field theories are d…
The rules of quantum mechanics require a time coordinate for their formulation. However, a notion of time is in general possible only when a classical spacetime geometry exists. Such a geometry is itself produced by classical matter sources. Thus it could be said that the currently known formulation of quantum mechanics pre-assumes the presence of classical matter fields. A more fundamental formulation of quantum mechanics should exist, which avoids having to use a notion of time. In this paper we discuss as to how such a fundamental formulation could be constructed for single particle, non-re…
Synthetic Differential Geometry (SDG) is a categorical version of differential geometry based on enriching the real line with infinitesimals and weakening of classical logic to intuitionistic logic. We show that SDG provides an effective mathematical tool to formulate general relativity in infinitesimally small domains. Such a domain is modelled by a monad around a point $x$ of a manifold $M$, defined as a collection of points in $M$ that differ from $x$ by an infinitesimal value. Monads have rich enough matematical structure to allow for the existence of all geomeric quantities necesary to co…
This work presents the foundations of Singular Semi-Riemannian Geometry and Singular General Relativity, based on the author's research. An extension of differential geometry and of Einstein's equation to singularities is reported. Singularities of the form studied here allow a smooth extension of the Einstein field equations, including matter. This applies to the Big-Bang singularity of the FLRW solution. It applies to stationary black holes, in appropriate coordinates (since the standard coordinates are singular at singularity, hiding the smoothness of the metric). In these coordinates, char…
