The Einstein Field Equations

Notes for GR-I - CCD

Basic Ingredients
We list here some basic requirements to be met in developing a set of eld equations to generalize the classical gravitational equations. The equations must be tensor equations, so they will be covariant, that is invariant under an arbitrary change of the coordinate system. Since we have already observed that the metric tensor gab corresponds roughly to the Newtonian gravitational potential, , it is to be expected that the partial dierential equations for gab will have at most second derivatives of gab , and that they will be linear in the highest order derivatives, ie, the second derivatives. In the limit of a weak gravitational eld and relative velocities small compared to the speed of light, the equations should reduce to the Poisson equation for the potential, so that 2 = 4G (1) where is the mass density. The source of the gravitational eld must be the total energy-momentum density, as represented by the energy-momentum tensor Tab . A at spacetime must require that Tab = 0. We have previously shown that all the geometrical objects that correspond to the classical entities of potential, forces, and tidal forces can be constructed from the three fundamental tensors, gab , Rabcd , and abcd . Suppose that there is a tensor, say Hab , built from these fundamental building blocks. In view of the listed requirements, we conclude that the eld equations can be written as Hab = Tab where is a coupling constant of nature.

(2)

c Charles C. Dyer

The usual conservation laws of energy-momentum of conventional physics imply that = 0, so that we conclude that we must also have H ab||b = 0. In addition, the symmetry of Tab also requires the symmetry of Hab . As we have already discovered, there are two tensors which satisfy these requirements, 1 the metric tensor gab and the Einstein tensor Gab = Rab 2 Rgab . Thus we can take Hab to be the linear combination Hab = Gab + gab (3) T ab ||b where is another constant of nature, usually called the cosmological constant. Thus the eld equations should be of the form Gab + gab = Tab or in terms of the Ricci tensor
1 Rab 2 Rgab + gab = Tab

(4)

(5)

These are the Einstein Field Equations introduced in 1915. As we will nd, the constant is 8G/c4 , where G is the Newtonian gravitational constant. We can introduce the Einstein equations in a slightly dierent way. The most general rank 2, symmetric and divergence-free tensor that can be constructed from the basic building blocks augmented by the tensor describing the physical content of the spacetime is AGab + Bgab + CTab (6) where A, B , and C are constants. Since this is divergence-free, we can take it to be a covariantly constant tensor (ie. a tensor with zero covariant derivative everywhere), and since gab is the covariantly constant rank 2 tensor, we can set the above expression to be a constant multiple of gab , but we can absorb that constant into the constant B . Thus the above expression can be taken to be zero. With the choice of A = 1, B = , and C = , we recover the Einstein eld equations given above. While the intention was to have the geometry of spacetime determined from the physical content of the universe, and at rst sight this seems to be what the Einstein equations implement, the situation is not quite so straightforward. In order to dene the source term, Tab , on the RHS of the Einstein equations, we already need to know the metric tensor, since it is necessary for the denition of the energy-momentum density. This makes the nonlinearity of the Einstein equations even more apparent. The Einstein eld equations actually comprise ten partial dierential equations for ten dependent variables, the components of gab , each a function of the spacetime coordinates, xc . There are four additional conditions arising from the divergence-free nature of the terms in the Einstein equations, leaving six independent equations for the ten dependent variables. The apparent lack of four equations corresponds to the freedom of choice of the four coordinate functions, which translates in the freedom to choose four of the independent components of gab .