Specialized Orthonormal Frames and Embedding

Abstract

We discuss some specializations of the frames of flat orthonormal frame bundles over geometries of indefinite signature, and the resulting symmetries of families of embedded Riemannian or pseudo-Riemannian geometries. The specializations are closed sets of linear constraints on the connection 1-forms of the framing. The embeddings can be isometric, as in minimal surfaces or Regge-Teitelboim gravity, or torsion-free, as in Einstein vacuum gravity. Involutive exterior differential systems are given, and their Cartan character tables calculated to express the well-posedness of the underlying partial differential embedding and specialization equations.

Keywords

• embedding
• orthonormal frames
• Cartan theory