Lagrange multipliers in theories of gravitation (Q1075624)

This paper advertizes C-variation (constrained variation; use of Lagrange multipliers) in the derivation of field equations in those gravitational theories, in which space time is equipped with a metric and with a connection, both of which may be nonsymmetric (original general relativity, Einstein-Cartan theory, Einstein-Schrödinger theory). This method, in the author's words, ''reconciles'' P-variation (Palatini- variation; independent variation of metric and connection) with H- variation (Hilbert-variation; variation of the metric alone treating the connection as dependent). The application of C-variation to the coupled system of gravity and matter is discussed extensively, where two cases are distinguished: (i) the gravitational Lagrangian is scalar curvature (in this case a certain coupling of Dirac fields is proposed, where Lagrange multipliers corresponding to the vanishing of torsion lead to the symmetrization of the energy momentum tensor and avoid Heisenberg- Pauli terms), (ii) the gravitational Lagrangian is quadratic in curvature (in this case the reduction to second order equations is discussed). - The paper uses tetrad formalism which is written in index notation. It contains a list of 51 references, which provide a good survey on the various variational principles used in gravitational theories.