Local scale invariance and general relativity (Q1421596)

In this note the author shows that the electromagnetic field can be introduced as a compensating gauge field that guarantees local scale invariance in general relativity. He shows that a well known procedure developed by Anderson and Finkelstein for introducing the cosmological constant removes the scale dependence from the field equations, leaving a set of scale-free field equations behind. In this way, the general relativity theory with a cosmological constant is the union of two equations. One equation determines the null-cone or causal structure of the space-time; the other equation determines the measure structure of the space-time. The author considers the field equations that determine the null-cone structure as the dynamical equations of a globally scale-invariant theory. Next he asks for the local scale invariance of the obtained theory and obtains the above interpretations of the electromagnetic field. The measure structure is left undetermined by the field equations and is introduced as an external field which is treated as an absolute object. The theory shares similarities with Weyl's unified field theory but does not yield to the same criticism, since the Lagrangian is first order in the curvature scalar.