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Are General Relativity and Teleparallel Gravity Theoretically Equivalent?

Weatherall, James Owen and Meskhidze, Helen (2024) Are General Relativity and Teleparallel Gravity Theoretically Equivalent? [Preprint]

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Abstract

Teleparallel gravity shares many qualitative features with general relativity, but differs from it in the following way: whereas in general relativity, gravitation is a manifestation of space-time curvature, in teleparallel gravity, spacetime is (always) flat. Gravitational effects in this theory arise due to spacetime torsion. It is often claimed that teleparallel gravity is an equivalent reformulation of general relativity. In this paper we question that view. We
argue that the theories are not equivalent, by the criterion of categorical equivalence and any stronger criterion, and that teleparallel gravity posits strictly more structure than general relativity.

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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Weatherall, James Owenweatherj@uci.edu0000-0003-1461-7821
Meskhidze, Helenemeskhid@uci.edu
Keywords: general relativity, teleparallel gravity, theoretical equivalence
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics
Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
Depositing User: James Owen Weatherall
Date Deposited: 23 Jan 2025 14:20
Last Modified: 23 Jan 2025 14:20
Item ID: 24593
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics
Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
Date: 2024
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/24593

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