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Minkowski Metric
"The Minkowski metric, unlike the Riemann
metric, by definition is NOT a generally covariant quantity. This is now conventional wisdom in the history and foundations of gravitational physics." wrote Z The above remark is wrong. inkowskiIn fact the Minkowski metric is a covariant second rank tensor under GCTs in globally flat spacetime and it is invariant under Lorentz boosts connecting geodesic observers. Even when you make the split in intrinsically curved space-time guv(curved) = (Minkowski)uv + huv(curved) each term on RHS is generally covariant separately. Consider 1+1 space-time for computational simplicity. The O(1,1) Lorentz boosts between geodesic inertial observers are xi' = Li'^ixi i = 0,1 x0' = #(x0 - @x1) x1' = #(-@x0 + x1) c = 1 # = (1 - @^2)^-1/2 In ordinary notation # = gamma, @ = v = relative speed between geodesic inertial observers L0'^0 = # L0'^1 = - #@ L1'^0 = - #@ = L0'^1 L1'^1 = # = L0'^0 (M)i'j' = L^ii'L^jj'(M)ij where "Minkowski" = M M00 = 1 M11 = -1 M01 = M10 = 0 M0'0' = L0'^iL0'^jMij = L0'^0L0'^0M00 + L0'^1L0'^1M11 = L0'^0L0'^0 - L0'^1L0'^1M11 = #^2 - #^2@^2 = +1 = M00 M0'0' = M00 M1'1' = L1'^iL1'^jMij = L1'^0 L1'^0M00 + L1'^1L1'^1M11 = L1'^0 L1'^0 - L1'^1L1'^1 = #^2@^2 - #^2 = -1 = M11 M1'1' = M11 M0'1' = L0'^iL1'^jMij = L0'^0L1'^0M00 + L0'^1L1'^1M11 = L0'^0L1'^0 - L0'^1L1'^1 = 0 = M1'0' = M10 = M01 Therefore the canonical form for the Minkowski metric is invariant under the linear Lorentz boosts connecting geodesic observers. Furthermore, the Minkowski metric (Minkowski)uv under GCT general nonlinear local coordinate transformations Xu'^u is a covariant 2nd rank symmetric tensor (Minkowski)u'v' = Xu'^u Xv'^v (Minkowski)uv |
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