Teleparallel gravity. An introduction (Q456906)

Usually, by torsion, one either means: 1) the second curvature or the degree of deviation of a space curve from a tangent plane; or 2) the deformation of a bar caused by a pair of forces which lead to a motion of its transverse sequencies. As is well known, the second case was used in the famous Cavendish experiment which allowed to determine experimentally the gravitational constant's value. For a general space-time, torsion arises when the Christoffel symbols fail to be symmetric. In formulas: \(\Gamma (j,kl)- \Gamma (j,lk)=S(j,kl)\), where \(S(j,kl)\) is the torsion tensor. In the simplest case when \(S=0\) (no torsion) one has 40 components of the Christoffel symbols (compare: [\textit{L. D. Landau} and \textit{E. M. Lifshits}, Lehrbuch der theoretischen Physik. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag (1988; Zbl 0652.70001), Paragraph 73]). If \(S \neq 0\) one has, generally speaking, 64 components of the Christoffel symbols. When \(S=0\) one gets the Einsteinian Theory of General Relativity. Otherwise we have the Einstein-Cartan theory of Gravity. The definition of the torsion tensor can also be found in the book by \textit{P. K. Rashevskij} [Riemannian geometry and the tensor analysis. Moskau: Staatsverlag für technisch-theoretische Literatur (1953; Zbl 0052.38802)]. There is a very good review of Einstein-Cartan theory by \textit{F. W. Hehl, P von der Heyde} and \textit{G. D. Kerlick} [``General relativity with spin and torsion: Foundations and prospects'', Rev. Mod. Phys. 48, 393--416 (1976; \url{doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.48.393})] as well as a series of good papers by J. Audretsch and his school during the same years concerning physical fields in Einstein-Cartan theory. The authors of the present book try to complete the almost exhaustive review article by Hehl et al., updating it by recent research in this area. Unfortunately, the first three chapters of the book are not very well written from the point of view of the physical explanation of the phenomenon of space-time torsion. But the subsequent pages, including the Appendixes are very well elaborated from the mathematical point of view. Many of the chapters of the book are very useful to any researcher intending to extend his research from the De Sitter space of General Relativity to De Sitter torsioned space, and from the De Sitter-Einstein space to De Sitter-Einstein-Cartan space. The same refers to the Schwarzschild and Kerr solutions of Petrov type D space-time metrics of General Relativity. The effects of torsion are generally smaller than the effects of curvature and could be detected many and many years later. One possibility exists to try to derive torsion from the quantum theory. These attempts are very useful and should be encouraged by any means. The book is useful but not necessarily indispensable.