scholarly journals On the methods of extending Dirac's equation of the electron to general relativity

1942 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-50
Author(s):  
D Martin
Keyword(s):  
General Relativity ◽  
Covariant Derivative ◽  
Riemannian Geometry ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Dirac Equations ◽  
Usual Form ◽  
Galilean System ◽  
Second Category ◽  
Working Out

1. Introduction. The problem of extending Dirac's equation of the electron to general relativity has been attacked by many authors, by methods which fall roughly into either of two classes according as the formulation does or does not require the introduction of a local Galilean system of coordinates at each point of space-time. As examples of the former class we mention the methods of Fock (1929) and of Cartan (1938), and as representing the latter class the method described by Ruse (1937). Also, Whittaker (1937) discovered a vector whose vanishing is completely equivalent to the Dirac equations, but this method, unlike the others in the second category, does not apply the Riemannian technique to spinors but only to vectors and tensors derived from these. Now Cartan has denied the possibility of fitting a spinor into Riemannian Geometry if his point of view of spinors is adhered to, and this he argues accounts for the “choquant” properties with which they have been endowed by the geometricians in order to enable them to write down an expression of the usual form for the covariant derivative of a spinor. Consequently, doubt has been cast on the compatibility of the various methods, so in this paper an attempt is made to clarify the matter by working out explicitly the case of the general metric by some of the more important of these methods.

scholarly journals WEYL GEOMETRY AS CHARACTERIZATION OF SPACE-TIME

2011 ◽  
Vol 03 ◽  
pp. 87-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. P. POULIS ◽  
J. M. SALIM
Keyword(s):  
General Relativity ◽  
Scalar Field ◽  
Riemannian Geometry ◽  
Axiomatic Approach ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Weyl Geometry ◽  
Test Particles ◽  
Variational Formalism ◽  
Physical Fields

Motivated by an axiomatic approach to characterize space-time it is investigated a reformulation of Einstein's gravity where the pseudo-riemannian geometry is substituted by a Weyl one. It is presented the main properties of the Weyl geometry and it is shown that it gives extra contributions to the trajectories of test particles, serving as one more motivation to study general relativity in Weyl geometry. It is introduced its variational formalism and it is established the coupling with other physical fields in such a way that the theory acquires a gauge symmetry for the geometrical fields. It is shown that this symmetry is still present for the red-shift and it is concluded that for cosmological models it opens the possibility that observations can be fully described by the new geometrical scalar field. It is concluded then that this reformulation, although representing a theoretical advance, still needs a complete description of their objects.

scholarly journals Space–Time Physics in Background-Independent Theories of Quantum Gravity

Universe ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. 251
Author(s):  
Martin Bojowald
Keyword(s):  
General Relativity ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Quantum Gravity ◽  
Riemannian Geometry ◽  
Loop Quantum Gravity ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Time Analysis ◽  
Complete Space ◽  
Background Independence ◽  
Starting Point

Background independence is often emphasized as an important property of a quantum theory of gravity that takes seriously the geometrical nature of general relativity. In a background-independent formulation, quantum gravity should determine not only the dynamics of space–time but also its geometry, which may have equally important implications for claims of potential physical observations. One of the leading candidates for background-independent quantum gravity is loop quantum gravity. By combining and interpreting several recent results, it is shown here how the canonical nature of this theory makes it possible to perform a complete space–time analysis in various models that have been proposed in this setting. In spite of the background-independent starting point, all these models turned out to be non-geometrical and even inconsistent to varying degrees, unless strong modifications of Riemannian geometry are taken into account. This outcome leads to several implications for potential observations as well as lessons for other background-independent approaches.

scholarly journals EMBEDDING VERSUS IMMERSION IN GENERAL RELATIVITY

2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (08n09) ◽  
pp. 1501-1504 ◽  
Author(s):  
EDMUNDO M. MONTE
Keyword(s):  
General Relativity ◽  
Causal Structure ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Physical Point ◽  
Exterior Solution ◽  
Euclidean Manifold ◽  
Classical Work ◽  
Higher Dimensional

We briefly discuss the concepts of immersion and embedding of space-times in higher-dimensional spaces. We revisit the classical work by Kasner in which he constructs a model of immersion of the Schwarzschild exterior solution into a six-dimensional pseudo-Euclidean manifold. We show that, from a physical point of view, this model is not entirely satisfactory, since the causal structure of the immersed space-time is not preserved by the immersion.

Modified field equations from a complexified nonlocal metric

2019 ◽  
Vol 97 (8) ◽  
pp. 816-827
Author(s):  
Rami Ahmad El-Nabulsi
Keyword(s):  
General Relativity ◽  
Covariant Derivative ◽  
Equations Of Motion ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Relativity Theory ◽  
Einstein’S Field Equations ◽  
Field Equations ◽  
General Relativity Theory ◽  
Higher Derivative ◽  
Tangent Vectors

We argue that it is possible to obtain higher-derivative Einstein’s field equations by means of an extended complexified backward–forward nonlocal extension of the space–time metric, which depends on space–time vectors. Our approach generalizes the notion of the covariant derivative along tangent vectors of a given manifold, and accordingly many of the differential geometrical operators and symbols used in general relativity. Equations of motion are derived and a nonlocal complexified general relativity theory is formulated. A number of illustrations are proposed and discussed accordingly.

scholarly journals THE CHRONO-GEOMETRICAL STRUCTURE OF SPECIAL AND GENERAL RELATIVITY: A RE-VISITATION OF CANONICAL GEOMETRODYNAMICS

2007 ◽  
Vol 04 (01) ◽  
pp. 79-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
LUCA LUSANNA
Keyword(s):  
General Relativity ◽  
Gravitational Field ◽  
Special Relativity ◽  
Geometrical Structure ◽  
Clock Synchronization ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Field Equations ◽  
Relativistic Limit ◽  
Inertial Frames

A modern re-visitation of the consequences of the lack of an intrinsic notion of instantaneous 3-space in relativistic theories leads to a reformulation of their kinematical basis emphasizing the role of non-inertial frames centered on an arbitrary accelerated observer. In special relativity the exigence of predictability implies the adoption of the 3 + 1 point of view, which leads to a well posed initial value problem for field equations in a framework where the change of the convention of synchronization of distant clocks is realized by means of a gauge transformation. This point of view is also at the heart of the canonical approach to metric and tetrad gravity in globally hyperbolic asymptotically flat space-times, where the use of Shanmugadhasan canonical transformations allows the separation of the physical degrees of freedom of the gravitational field (the tidal effects) from the arbitrary gauge variables. Since a global vision of the equivalence principle implies that only global non-inertial frames can exist in general relativity, the gauge variables are naturally interpreted as generalized relativistic inertial effects, which have to be fixed to get a deterministic evolution in a given non-inertial frame. As a consequence, in each Einstein's space-time in this class the whole chrono-geometrical structure, including also the clock synchronization convention, is dynamically determined and a new approach to the Hole Argument leads to the conclusion that "gravitational field" and "space-time" are two faces of the same entity. This view allows to get a classical scenario for the unification of the four interactions in a scheme suited to the description of the solar system or our galaxy with a deparametrization to special relativity and the subsequent possibility to take the non-relativistic limit.

scholarly journals A relativistic basis of the quantum theory.—II

1934 ◽  
Vol 145 (855) ◽  
pp. 645-656 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Wave Equation ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
General Expression ◽  
Matrix Equation ◽  
Covariant Derivative ◽  
Riemannian Geometry ◽  
Order Equation ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Space Curvature

The paper is a continuation of the last paper communicated to these 'Proceedings.' In that paper, which we shall refer to as the first paper, a more general expression for space curvature was obtained than that which occurs in Riemannian geometry, by a modification of the Riemannian covariant derivative and by the use of a fifth co-ordinate. By means of a particular substitution (∆ μσ σ = 1/ψ ∂ψ/∂x μ ) it was shown that this curvature takes the form of the second order equation of quantum mechanics. It is not a matrix equation, however but one which has the character of the wave equation as it occurred in the earlier form of the quantum theory. But it contains additional terms, all of which can be readily accounted for in physics, expect on which suggested an identification with energy of the spin.

scholarly journals QUANTUM SINGULARITIES IN STATIC SPACETIMES

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (05) ◽  
pp. 729-743 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOÃO PAULO M. PITELLI ◽  
PATRICIO S. LETELIER
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Wave Operator ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Quantum Mechanical ◽  
Mathematical Framework ◽  
Physical Content ◽  
Dirac Equations ◽  
Quantum Particles ◽  
Klein Gordon ◽  
Quantum Singularities

We review the mathematical framework necessary to understand the physical content of quantum singularities in static spacetimes. We present many examples of classical singular spacetimes and study their singularities by using wave packets satisfying Klein–Gordon and Dirac equations. We show that in many cases the classical singularities are excluded when tested by quantum particles but unfortunately there are other cases where the singularities remain from the quantum mechanical point of view. When it is possible we also find, for spacetimes where quantum mechanics does not exclude the singularities, the boundary conditions necessary to turn the spatial portion of the wave operator to be self-adjoint and emphasize their importance to the interpretation of quantum singularities.

scholarly journals TOPOLOGICAL INSULATOR AND THE DIRAC EQUATION

SPIN ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 01 (01) ◽  
pp. 33-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
SHUN-QING SHEN ◽  
WEN-YU SHAN ◽  
HAI-ZHOU LU
Keyword(s):  
Dirac Equation ◽  
Topological Insulator ◽  
Bound States ◽  
Topological Insulators ◽  
Mass Term ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Quadratic Term ◽  
General Description ◽  
Dirac Equations ◽  
Topological Quantum

We present a general description of topological insulators from the point of view of Dirac equations. The Z2 index for the Dirac equation is always zero, and thus the Dirac equation is topologically trivial. After the quadratic term in momentum is introduced to correct the mass term m or the band gap of the Dirac equation, i.e., m → m − Bp2, the Z2 index is modified as 1 for mB > 0 and 0 for mB < 0. For a fixed B there exists a topological quantum phase transition from a topologically trivial system to a nontrivial system when the sign of mass m changes. A series of solutions near the boundary in the modified Dirac equation is obtained, which is characteristic of topological insulator. From the solutions of the bound states and the Z2 index we establish a relation between the Dirac equation and topological insulators.

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