The early history of symmetric teleparallel gravity: An overlooked period

TL;DR

This paper reviews the early development of symmetric teleparallel gravity before 2017, highlighting overlooked foundational work and providing a historical perspective on its geometric evolution and recent resurgence.

Contribution

It uncovers and discusses the pioneering research on symmetric teleparallel gravity conducted between 2004 and 2013, prior to its recent surge of interest.

Findings

Historical development of symmetric teleparallel gravity clarified

Early geometric formulations documented and analyzed

Recent work from 2018 onwards summarized

Abstract

It is noteworthy that symmetric teleparallel gravity has attracted considerable attention in recent years. A survey of the literature indicates that this surge of interest became particularly prominent around 2017 and 2018. However, together with my students and collaborators, we published a series of systematic and pioneering papers on this subject between 2004 and 2013. This article aims to clarify the early geometric development of symmetric teleparallel gravity preceding the recent surge of interest in $f(Q)$ gravity. For the sake of completeness and coherence, we will also briefly review our work on this topic carried out after 2018. In the final paragraph, we will write our personal perspectives on the future of symmetric teleparallel geometry.