Einstein field equations

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The Einstein field equations (EFE) or Einstein's equations are a set of 10 equations in Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity which describe the fundamental interaction of gravitation as a result of spacetime being curved by matter and energy.[1] First published by Einstein in 1915[2] as a tensor equation, the EFE equate local spacetime curvature (expressed by the Einstein tensor) with the local energy and momentum within that spacetime (expressed by the stressenergy tensor).[3] Similar to the way that electromagnetic fields are determined using charges and currents via Maxwell's equations, the EFE are used to determine the spacetime geometry resulting from the presence of mass-energy and linear momentum, that is, they determine the metric tensor of spacetime for a given arrangement of stressenergy in the spacetime. The relationship between the metric tensor and the Einstein tensor allows the EFE to be written as a set of non-linear partial differential equations when used in this way. The solutions of the EFE are the components of the metric tensor. The inertial trajectories of particles and radiation (geodesics) in the resulting geometry are then calculated using the geodesic equation. As well as obeying local energy-momentum conservation, the EFE reduce to Newton's law of gravitation where the gravitational field is weak and velocities are much less than the speed of light.[4] Exact solutions for the EFE can only be found under simplifying assumptions such as symmetry. Special classes of exact solutions are most often studied as they model many gravitational phenomena, such as rotating black holes and the expanding universe. Further simplification is achieved in approximating the actual spacetime as flat spacetime with a small deviation, leading to the linearised EFE. These equations are used to study phenomena such as gravitational waves.

Contents
1 Mathematical form 1.1 Sign convention 1.2 Equivalent formulations 2 The cosmological constant 3 Features 3.1 Conservation of energy and momentum 3.2 Nonlinearity 3.3 The correspondence principle 4 Vacuum field equations 5 EinsteinMaxwell equations 6 Solutions 7 The linearised EFE 8 Polynomial form 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

Mathematical form
The Einstein field equations (EFE) may be written in the form:[1]

where constant,

is the Ricci curvature tensor, the scalar curvature, the metric tensor, is the cosmological is Newton's gravitational constant, the speed of light in vacuum, and the stressenergy tensor.

The EFE is a tensor equation relating a set of symmetric 44 tensors. Each tensor has 10 independent components. The four Bianchi identities reduce the number of independent equations from 10 to 6, leaving the metric with four gauge fixing degrees of freedom, which correspond to the freedom to choose a coordinate system. Although the Einstein field equations were initially formulated in the context of a four-dimensional theory, some theorists have explored their consequences in n dimensions. The equations in contexts outside of general relativity are still referred to as the Einstein field equations. The vacuum field equations (obtained when T is identically zero) define Einstein manifolds. Despite the simple appearance of the equations they are, in fact, quite complicated. Given a specified distribution of matter and energy in the form of a stressenergy tensor, the EFE are understood to be equations for the metric tensor , as both the Ricci tensor and scalar curvature depend on the metric in a complicated nonlinear manner. In fact, when fully written out, the EFE are a system of 10 coupled, nonlinear, hyperbolic-elliptic partial differential equations. One can write the EFE in a more compact form by defining the Einstein tensor

which is a symmetric second-rank tensor that is a function of the metric. The EFE can then be written as

Using geometrized units where G = c = 1, this can be rewritten as

The expression on the left represents the curvature of spacetime as determined by the metric; the expression on the right represents the matter/energy content of spacetime. The EFE can then be interpreted as a set of equations dictating how matter/energy determines the curvature of spacetime. These equations, together with the geodesic equation,[5] which dictates how freely-falling matter moves through space-time, form the core of the mathematical formulation of general relativity.

Sign convention
The above form of the EFE is the standard established by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler. The authors analyzed all conventions that exist and classified according to the following three signs (S1, S2, S3):

The third sign above is related to the choice of convention for the Ricci tensor:

With these definitions Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler classify themselves as , whereas Weinberg (1972) is , Peebles (1980) and Efstathiou (1990) are while Peacock (1994), Rindler (1977), Atwater (1974), Collins Martin & Squires (1989) are . Authors including Einstein have used a different sign in their definition for the Ricci tensor which results in the sign of the constant on the right side being negative

The sign of the (very small) cosmological term would change in both these versions, if the + metric sign convention is used rather than the MTW +++ metric sign convention adopted here.

Equivalent formulations
Taking the trace of both sides of the EFE one gets

which simplifies to

If one adds

times this to the EFE, one gets the following equivalent "trace-reversed" form

Reversing the trace again would restore the original EFE. The trace-reversed form may be more convenient in some

Reversing the trace again would restore the original EFE. The trace-reversed form may be more convenient in some cases (for example, when one is interested in weak-field limit and can replace in the expression on the right with the Minkowski metric without significant loss of accuracy).

The cosmological constant

Einstein modified his original field equations to include a cosmological term proportional to the metric

The constant

is the cosmological constant. Since

is constant, the energy conservation law is unaffected.

The cosmological constant term was originally introduced by Einstein to allow for a static universe (i.e., one that is not expanding or contracting). This effort was unsuccessful for two reasons: the static universe described by this theory was unstable, and observations of distant galaxies by Hubble a decade later confirmed that our universe is, in fact, not static but expanding. So was abandoned, with Einstein calling it the "biggest blunder [he] ever made".[6] For many years the cosmological constant was almost universally considered to be 0. Despite Einstein's misguided motivation for introducing the cosmological constant term, there is nothing inconsistent with the presence of such a term in the equations. Indeed, recent improved astronomical techniques have found that a positive value of is needed to explain the accelerating universe.[7][8] Einstein thought of the cosmological constant as an independent parameter, but its term in the field equation can also be moved algebraically to the other side, written as part of the stressenergy tensor:

The resulting vacuum energy is constant and given by

The existence of a cosmological constant is thus equivalent to the existence of a non-zero vacuum energy. The terms are now used interchangeably in general relativity.

Features
Conservation of energy and momentum
General relativity is consistent with the local conservation of energy and momentum expressed as . Derivation of local energy-momentum conservation Contracting the differential Bianchi identity

with

gives, using the fact that the metric tensor is covariantly constant, i.e. ,

The antisymmetry of the Riemann tensor allows the second term in the above expression to be rewritten:

which is equivalent to

using the definition of the Ricci tensor. Next, contract again with the metric

to get

The definitions of the Ricci curvature tensor and the scalar curvature then show that

which can be rewritten as

A final contraction with

gives

which by the symmetry of the bracketed term and the definition of the Einstein tensor, gives, after relabelling the indices,

Using the EFE, this immediately gives,

which expresses the local conservation of stressenergy. This conservation law is a physical requirement. With his field equations Einstein ensured that general relativity is consistent with this conservation condition.

Nonlinearity
The nonlinearity of the EFE distinguishes general relativity from many other fundamental physical theories. For example, Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism are linear in the electric and magnetic fields, and charge and current distributions (i.e. the sum of two solutions is also a solution); another example is Schrdinger's equation of quantum mechanics which is linear in the wavefunction.

The correspondence principle

The EFE reduce to Newton's law of gravity by using both the weak-field approximation and the slow-motion approximation. In fact, the constant G appearing in the EFE is determined by making these two approximations. Derivation of Newton's law of gravity Newtonian gravitation can be written as the theory of a scalar field, , which is the gravitational potential in joules per kilogram

where

is the mass density. The orbit of a free-falling particle satisfies

In tensor notation, these become

In general relativity, these equations are replaced by the Einstein field equations in the trace-reversed form

for some constant, K, and the geodesic equation

To see how the latter reduce to the former, we assume that the test particle's velocity is approximately zero

and thus

and that the metric and its derivatives are approximately static and that the squares of deviations from the Minkowski metric are negligible. Applying these simplifying assumptions to the spatial components of the geodesic equation gives

where two factors of counterpart, provided

have been divided out. This will reduce to its Newtonian

Our assumptions force =i and the time (0) derivatives to be zero. So this simplifies to

which is satisfied by letting

Turning to the Einstein equations, we only need the time-time component

the low speed and static field assumptions imply that

So

and thus

From the definition of the Ricci tensor

Our simplifying assumptions make the squares of disappear together with the time derivatives

Combining the above equations together

which reduces to the Newtonian field equation provided

which will occur if

Vacuum field equations

If the energy-momentum tensor is zero in the region under consideration, then the field equations are also referred to as the vacuum field equations. By setting in the trace-reversed field equations, the vacuum equations can be written as

In the case of nonzero cosmological constant, the equations are

The solutions to the vacuum field equations are called vacuum solutions. Flat Minkowski space is the simplest example of a vacuum solution. Nontrivial examples include the Schwarzschild solution and the Kerr solution. Manifolds with a vanishing Ricci tensor, , are referred to as

A Swiss commemorative coin showing the vacuum field equations with zero cosmological constant (top).

Ricci-flat manifolds and manifolds with a Ricci tensor proportional to the metric as Einstein manifolds.

EinsteinMaxwell equations
See also: Maxwell's equations in curved spacetime If the energy-momentum tensor stressenergy tensor is that of an electromagnetic field in free space, i.e. if the electromagnetic

is used, then the Einstein field equations are called the EinsteinMaxwell equations (with cosmological constant , taken to be zero in conventional relativity theory):

Additionally, the covariant Maxwell Equations are also applicable in free space:

where the semicolon represents a covariant derivative, and the brackets denote anti-symmetrization. The first equation asserts that the 4-divergence of the two-form F is zero, and the second that its exterior derivative is zero. From the latter, it follows by the Poincar lemma that in a coordinate chart it is possible to introduce an electromagnetic field potential A such that

in which the comma denotes a partial derivative. This is often taken as equivalent to the covariant Maxwell equation from which it is derived.[9] However, there are global solutions of the equation which may lack a globally defined potential.[10]

Solutions
Main article: Solutions of the Einstein field equations The solutions of the Einstein field equations are metrics of spacetime. These metrics describe the structure of the spacetime including the inertial motion of objects in the spacetime. As the field equations are non-linear, they cannot always be completely solved (i.e. without making approximations). For example, there is no known complete solution for a spacetime with two massive bodies in it (which is a theoretical model of a binary star system, for example). However, approximations are usually made in these cases. These are commonly referred to as postNewtonian approximations. Even so, there are numerous cases where the field equations have been solved completely, and those are called exact solutions.[11]

completely, and those are called exact solutions. The study of exact solutions of Einstein's field equations is one of the activities of cosmology. It leads to the prediction of black holes and to different models of evolution of the universe.

The linearised EFE

Main articles: Linearized Einstein field equations and Linearized gravity The nonlinearity of the EFE makes finding exact solutions difficult. One way of solving the field equations is to make an approximation, namely, that far from the source(s) of gravitating matter, the gravitational field is very weak and the spacetime approximates that of Minkowski space. The metric is then written as the sum of the Minkowski metric and a term representing the deviation of the true metric from the Minkowski metric, with terms that are quadratic in or higher powers of the deviation being ignored. This linearisation procedure can be used to investigate the phenomena of gravitational radiation.

Polynomial form
One might think that EFE are non-polynomial since they contain the inverse of the metric tensor. However, the equations can be arranged so that they contain only the metric tensor and not its inverse. First, the determinant of the metric in 4 dimensions can be written:

using the Levi-Civita symbol; and the inverse of the metric in 4 dimensions can be written as:

Substituting this definition of the inverse of the metric into the equations then multiplying both sides by det(g) until there are none left in the denominator results in polynomial equations in the metric tensor and its first and second derivatives. The action from which the equations are derived can also be written in polynomial form by suitable redefinitions of the fields.[12]

See also
EinsteinHilbert action Exact solutions of Einstein's field equations Equivalence principle General relativity General relativity resources History of general relativity HamiltonJacobiEinstein equation Mathematics of general relativity Ricci calculus Solutions of the Einstein field equations

References
See General relativity resources.
1. ^ a b Einstein, Albert (1916). "The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity" (http://www.alberteinstein.info/gallery/gtext3.html) (PDF). Annalen der Physik . Bibcode:1916AnP...354..769E (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1916AnP...354..769E). doi:10.1002/andp.19163540702 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1002%2Fandp.19163540702). 2. ^ Einstein, Albert (November 25, 1915). "Die Feldgleichungen der Gravitation" (http://nausikaa2.mpiwgberlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/toc/toc.x.cgi?dir=6E3MAXK4&step=thumb). Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin: 844847. Retrieved 2006-09-12. 3. ^ Misner, Charles W.; Thorne, Kip S.; Wheeler, John Archibald (1973), Gravitation, San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, ISBN 978-0-7167-0344-0 Chapter 34, p 916 4. ^ Carroll, Sean (2004). Spacetime and Geometry - An Introduction to General Relativity. pp. 151159. ISBN 08053-8732-3. 5. ^ Weinberg, Steven (1993). Dreams of a Final Theory: the search for the fundamental laws of nature. Vintage Press. pp. 107, 233. ISBN 0-09-922391-0. 6. ^ Gamow, George (April 28, 1970). My World Line : An Informal Autobiography (http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/~jpl/cosmo/blunder.html). Viking Adult. ISBN 0-670-50376-2. Retrieved 2007-03-14. 7. ^ Wahl, Nicolle (2005-11-22). "Was Einstein's 'biggest blunder' a stellar success?" (http://web.archive.org/web/20070307191343/http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/051122-1839.asp). Archived from the original (http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/051122-1839.asp) on 2007-03-07. Retrieved 2007-03-14. 8. ^ Turner, Michael S. (May, 2001). "Making Sense of the New Cosmology". Int.J.Mod.Phys. A17S1 17: 180196. arXiv:astro-ph/0202008 (http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0202008). Bibcode:2002IJMPA..17S.180T (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2002IJMPA..17S.180T). doi:10.1142/S0217751X02013113 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1142%2FS0217751X02013113). 9. ^ Brown, Harvey (2005). Physical Relativity (http://books.google.com/? id=T6IVyWiPQksC&pg=PA164&dq=Maxwell+and+potential+and+%22generally+covariant%22). Oxford University Press. p. 164. ISBN 978-0-19-927583-0. 10. ^ Trautman, Andrzej (1977). "Solutions of the Maxwell and Yang-Mills equations associated with hopf fibrings". International Journal of Theoretical Physics 16 (9): 561565. Bibcode:1977IJTP...16..561T (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1977IJTP...16..561T). doi:10.1007/BF01811088 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2FBF01811088).. 11. ^ Stephani, Hans; D. Kramer, M. MacCallum, C. Hoenselaers and E. Herlt (2003). Exact Solutions of Einstein's Field Equations. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-46136-7. 12. ^ Einstein's Field Equations in Polynomial Form|http://arxiv.org/pdf/gr-qc/0507026.pdf

Aczel, Amir D., 1999. God's Equation: Einstein, Relativity, and the Expanding Universe. Delta Science. A popular account. Charles Misner, Kip Thorne, and John Wheeler, 1973. Gravitation. W H Freeman.

External links
Hazewinkel, Michiel, ed. (2001), "Einstein equations" (http://www.encyclopediaofmath.org/index.php? title=p/e035210), Encyclopedia of Mathematics, Springer, ISBN 978-1-55608-010-4 Caltech Tutorial on Relativity (http://www.black-holes.org/relativity6.html) A simple introduction to Einstein's Field Equations. The Meaning of Einstein's Equation (http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/einstein/einstein.html) An explanation of Einstein's field equation, its derivation, and some of its consequences

General relativity: the Einstein's field equation (http://settheory.net/general-relativity) Short explanation on the meaning and justification of this equation. Video Lecture on Einstein's Field Equations (http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=8MWNs7Wfk84&feature=PlayList&p=858478F1EC364A2C&index=2) by MIT Physics Professor Edmund Bertschinger. Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Einstein_field_equations&oldid=569586988" Categories: General relativity Partial differential equations Equations of physics Albert Einstein This page was last modified on 21 August 2013 at 15:45. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.