Energy-momentum current for coframe gravity

TL;DR

This paper develops a new formulation of energy-momentum current in coframe gravity, showing it as a conserved current similar to Maxwell's equations, and introduces a well-defined energy-momentum tensor unlike in standard GR.

Contribution

It proposes a general teleparallel model with a conserved energy-momentum current and a well-defined tensor, extending the understanding of gravitational energy-momentum beyond standard GR.

Findings

Derived a Maxwell-like form of the coframe field equations.

Identified the energy-momentum current as a conserved quantity.

Showed that the energy-momentum tensor becomes a pseudo-tensor in GR limit.

Abstract

The obstruction for the existence of an energy momentum tensor for the gravitational field is connected with differential-geometric features of the Riemannian manifold. It has not to be valid for alternative geometrical structures. A teleparallel manifold is defined as a parallelizable differentiable 4D-manifold endowed with a class of smooth coframe fields related by global Lorentz, i.e., SO(1,3) transformations. In this article a general free parametric class of teleparallel models is considered. It includes a 1-parameter subclass of viable models with the Schwarzschild coframe solution. A new form of the coframe field equation is derived from the general teleparallel Lagrangian by introducing the notion of a 3-parameter conjugate field strength $\F^a$. The field equation turns out to have a form completely similar to the Maxwell field equation $d*\F^a=\T^a$. By applying the Noether procedure, the source 3-form $\T^a$ is shown to be connected with the diffeomorphism invariance of the Lagrangian. Thus the source $\T^a$ of the coframe field is interpreted as the total conserved energy-momentum current. The energy-momentum tensor for coframe is defined. The total energy-momentum current of a system of a coframe and a material fields is conserved. Thus a redistribution of the energy-momentum current between a material and a coframe (gravity) fields is possible in principle, unlike as in the standard GR. For special values of parameters, when the GR is reinstated, the energy-momentum tensor gives up the invariant sense, i.e., becomes a pseudo-tensor. Thus even a small-parametric change of GR turns it into a well defined Lagrangian theory.