Change in Hamiltonian general relativity from the lack of a time-like Killing vector field

DOI10.1016/J.SHPSB.2014.05.007zbMATH Open1294.83030arXiv1406.2665OpenAlexW2124244468MaRDI QIDQ407336FDOQ407336

Authors: J. Brian Pitts 

Publication date: 29 August 2014

Published in: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. Part B. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: In General Relativity in Hamiltonian form, change has seemed to be missing, defined only asymptotically, or otherwise obscured at best, because the Hamiltonian is a sum of first-class constraints and a boundary term and thus supposedly generates gauge transformations. Attention to the gauge generator G of Rosenfeld, Anderson, Bergmann, Castellani et al., a specially tuned sum of first-class constraints, facilitates seeing that a solitary first-class constraint in fact generates not a gauge transformation, but a bad physical change in electromagnetism (changing E) or GR. The change spoils the Lagrangian constraints in terms of the physically relevant velocities rather than auxiliary canonical momenta. While Maudlin has defended change in GR much as G. E. Moore resisted skepticism, there remains a need to exhibit the technical flaws in the argument. Insistence on Hamiltonian-Lagrangian equivalence, a theme emphasized by Mukunda, Castellani, Sugano, Pons, Salisbury, Shepley and Sundermeyer among others, holds the key. Taking objective change to be ineliminable time dependence, there is change in vacuum GR just in case there is no time-like vector field satisfying Killing's equation. Throwing away the spatial dependence of GR for convenience, one finds that the time evolution from Hamilton's equations is real change just when there is no time-like Killing vector. Hence change is real and local even in the Hamiltonian formalism. The considerations here resolve the Earman-Maudlin standoff: the Hamiltonian formalism is helpful, and, suitably reformed, it does not have absurd consequences for change. Hence the classical problem of time is resolved, apart from the issue of observables, for which the solution is outlined. The quantum problem of time, however, is not automatically resolved due to issues of quantum constraint imposition.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1406.2665

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zbMATH Keywords

quantum gravityvariational principlesgeneral relativityconstrained Hamiltonian dynamicsproblem of time

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Physics (00A79) Variational principles of physics (49S05) Lagrangian formalism and Hamiltonian formalism in mechanics of particles and systems (70S05) Classes of solutions; algebraically special solutions, metrics with symmetries for problems in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C20) Quantization of the gravitational field (83C45) Constrained dynamics, Dirac's theory of constraints (70H45)

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Cited In (9)

• A first class constraint generates not a gauge transformation, but a bad physical change: The case of electromagnetism
• Equivalent theories and changing Hamiltonian observables in general relativity
• When scale is surplus
• Change without change, and how to observe it in general relativity
• Origin of structure in the universe: quantum cosmology reconsidered
• Does a second-class primary constraint generate a gauge transformation? Electromagnetisms and gravities, massless and massive
• Symmetry and evolution in quantum gravity
• Change in Hamiltonian general relativity with spinors
• What are observables in Hamiltonian Einstein-Maxwell theory?

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