Universe (Jul 2019)

The Geometrical Trinity of Gravity

  • Jose Beltrán Jiménez,
  • Lavinia Heisenberg,
  • Tomi S. Koivisto

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/universe5070173
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5, no. 7
p. 173

Abstract

Read online

The geometrical nature of gravity emerges from the universality dictated by the equivalence principle. In the usual formulation of General Relativity, the geometrisation of the gravitational interaction is performed in terms of the spacetime curvature, which is now the standard interpretation of gravity. However, this is not the only possibility. In these notes, we discuss two alternative, though equivalent, formulations of General Relativity in flat spacetimes, in which gravity is fully ascribed either to torsion or to non-metricity, thus putting forward the existence of three seemingly unrelated representations of the same underlying theory. Based on these three alternative formulations of General Relativity, we then discuss some extensions.

Keywords