Conventionalism, Cosmology and Teleparallel Gravity

Abstract

We consider homogeneous and isotropic cosmological models in the framework of three geometrical theories of gravitation. In Einstein’s general relativity, they are given in terms of the curvature of the Levi-Civita connection in torsion-free metric spacetimes; in the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity, they are given in terms of the torsion of flat metric spacetimes; and in the symmetric teleparallel equivalent of general relativity, they are given in terms of the nonmetricity of flat torsion-free spacetimes. We argue that although these three formulations seem to be different, the corresponding cosmological models are in fact equivalent and their choice is conventional.

Keywords

• philosophy of spacetime
• Friedmann cosmology
• teleparallel gravity
• symmetric teleparallel gravity