The physical role of gravitational and gauge degrees of freedom in general relativity. I: Dynamical synchronization and generalized inertial effects (Q2492741)

The first of a couple of papers concerns specific technical issues, and new insights about old foundational problems of general relativity. The first paper includes: 1) an analysis of the various concepts of symmetry related to the Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian formulation on the one hand and to the Hamiltonian formulation on the other. One obtains a reinterpretation of active diffeomorphisms as passive and metric dependent dynamical symmetries of Einstein's equations, a reinterpretation which allows to disclose the connection of a subgroup of them to Hamiltonian gauge transformations on-shell. 2) The second aim is to examine anew the critical canonical reduction of the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner formulation of general relativity, with particular emphasis on the geometro-dynamical effects of the gauge-fixing procedure (J. A. Wheeler), which amounts to the definition of a global non-inertial, space-time laboratory. This analysis discloses the peculiar dynamical nature that the traditional definition of a distant simultaneity and clock-synchronization assumed in general relativity, as well as the gauge relatedness of the ``conventions'', which generalizes the classical Einstein's convention. 3) The third aim is to clarify the physical role of Dirac and gauge variables, as their being related to tidal-like and generalized inertial effects. This clarification is mainly due to the fact that the Hamiltonian formalism allows to define a generalized notion of ``force'' in general relativity in a natural way, unlike the standard formulations of the equivalence principle. For Part II, see ibid. 38, No. 229--267 (2006; Zbl 1096.83005).