# nLab first-order formulation of gravity

### Context

#### Gravity

gravity, supergravity

## Spacetimes

black hole spacetimesvanishing angular momentumpositive angular momentum
vanishing chargeSchwarzschild spacetimeKerr spacetime
positive chargeReissner-Nordstrom spacetimeKerr-Newman spacetime

# Contents

## Idea

The action functional of gravity was originally conceived as a functional on the space of pseudo-Riemannian metrics of a manifold $X$. Later on it was realized that it may alternatively naturally be thought of as a functional on the space of connections with values in the Poincaré Lie algebra – subject to the constraint that the component in the translation Lie algebra defines a vielbein field.

Mathematically this means that the field of gravity is modeled as a Cartan connection for the Lorentz group inside the Poincaré group. In physics this is known as the first order formalism or the Cartan moving frame method. The translation part of the Poincaré Lie algebra-connection is called the vielbein and the remainder the spin connection. The field strength of gravity – the Riemann tensor – is the curvature.

The reformulation of pseudo-Riemannian geometry in terms of Cartan geometry is suggestive of also re-rewriting the form of the Lagrangian density/action functional of the theory of gravity, even though this is logically an independent issue. In spacetime of dimension 3+1 one such alternative is known as the Palatini-Cartan-Holst action. That its phase space coincides with that induced by the Einstein-Hilbert action is due to Cattaneo-Schiavina 17

Promoting the first-ore formulation of gravity from the Poincaré group to the super Poincaré group yields supergravity formulated in super Cartan geometry. Promoting it further to the Lie n-algebra extensions of the super Poincaré group (from the brane scan/brane bouquet) yields type II supergravity, heterotic supergravity and 11-dimensional supergravity in higher Cartan geometry-formulation (D'Auria-Fré formulation of supergravity).

geometric contextgauge groupstabilizer subgrouplocal model spacelocal geometryglobal geometrydifferential cohomologyfirst order formulation of gravity
differential geometryLie group/algebraic group $G$subgroup (monomorphism) $H \hookrightarrow G$quotient (“coset space”) $G/H$Klein geometryCartan geometryCartan connection
examplesEuclidean group $Iso(d)$rotation group $O(d)$Cartesian space $\mathbb{R}^d$Euclidean geometryRiemannian geometryaffine connectionEuclidean gravity
Poincaré group $Iso(d-1,1)$Lorentz group $O(d-1,1)$Minkowski spacetime $\mathbb{R}^{d-1,1}$Lorentzian geometrypseudo-Riemannian geometryspin connectionEinstein gravity
anti de Sitter group $O(d-1,2)$$O(d-1,1)$anti de Sitter spacetime $AdS^d$AdS gravity
de Sitter group $O(d,1)$$O(d-1,1)$de Sitter spacetime $dS^d$deSitter gravity
linear algebraic groupparabolic subgroup/Borel subgroupflag varietyparabolic geometry
conformal group $O(d,t+1)$conformal parabolic subgroupMöbius space $S^{d,t}$conformal geometryconformal connectionconformal gravity
supergeometrysuper Lie group $G$subgroup (monomorphism) $H \hookrightarrow G$quotient (“coset space”) $G/H$super Klein geometrysuper Cartan geometryCartan superconnection
examplessuper Poincaré groupspin groupsuper Minkowski spacetime $\mathbb{R}^{d-1,1\vert N}$Lorentzian supergeometrysupergeometrysuperconnectionsupergravity
super anti de Sitter groupsuper anti de Sitter spacetime
higher differential geometrysmooth 2-group $G$2-monomorphism $H \to G$homotopy quotient $G//H$Klein 2-geometryCartan 2-geometry
cohesive ∞-group∞-monomorphism (i.e. any homomorphism) $H \to G$homotopy quotient $G//H$ of ∞-actionhigher Klein geometryhigher Cartan geometryhigher Cartan connection
examplesextended super Minkowski spacetimeextended supergeometryhigher supergravity: type II, heterotic, 11d

## Properties

### Local and global framing

Discussion in the physics literature traditionally tends to ignore the global structure of spacetime manifolds and pretends that a vielbein field may be chosen globally, hence that spacetime admits a framing.

In general that is only valid locally, but it so happens that in the archetypical case of interest, namely for 4-dimensional globally hyperbolic spacetimes with orientable spatial slices, it is valid globally. See this remark at framed manifold for more.