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Full-Text Articles in Physics
Gravitational Observables And Local Symmetries, Charles G. Torre
Gravitational Observables And Local Symmetries, Charles G. Torre
All Physics Faculty Publications
Using a recent classification of local symmetries of the vacuum Einstein equations, it is shown that there can be no observables for the vacuum gravitational field (in a closed universe) built as spatial integrals of local functions of Cauchy data and their derivatives.
Symmetries Of The Einstein Equations, Charles G. Torre, Ian M. Anderson
Symmetries Of The Einstein Equations, Charles G. Torre, Ian M. Anderson
All Physics Faculty Publications
We classify all generalized symmetries of the vacuum Einstein equations in four spacetime dimensions. They consist of constant scalings of the metric, and of the infinitesimal action of generalized spacetime diffeomorphisms. Our results rule out a large class of possible ‘‘observables’’ for the gravitational field, and suggest that the vacuum Einstein equations are not integrable.