Fiber bundles, connections, general relativity, and the Einstein-Cartan theory. I (Q1929928)

The author presents the fundamental geometrical concepts related to general relativity and one of its extensions, the Einstein-Cartan theory, in the context of the theory of vector and principal bundles and connections in them. Central concepts are the curvature tensor \(R\), the torsion tensor \(T\), and the non-metricity tensor \(Q=-Dg\) as properties of connections in a Riemannian or pseudo-Riemannian manifold, with metric \(g\) and affine connection \(\Gamma\) with its covariant derivative \(D\) with respect to \(\Gamma\). The general relativity involves a metric symmetric connection, the Levi-Civita connection, that only allows for \(R\), the Einstein-Cartan theory involves a metric but not necessarily symmetric connection, that allows also for \(T\), while the theory of Weylian manifolds involves a not necessarily metric and symmetric connection. The author shows that the Einstein tensor appears naturally from the Bianchi identities, thus emphasizing the pure geometrical nature of the left hand side of the equations of general relativity.