Splitting Spacetime
From GRwiki
Contents |
[edit] Foliation of spacetime
[edit] Basic structure
is the spacetime metric.
is the spacetime covariant derivative.
is a spacetime scalar field that foliates the spacetime. (The level surfaces of
are assumed spacelike.)
[edit] Unit normal
The unit normal vector field is
with the lapse function defined by
The unit normal satisfies
[edit] Spatial metric
The spatial metric expressed as a spacetime tensor is
The alternative notation
is used to emphasize the role of the spatial metric as a projection operator for the spacelike foliation.
[edit] Extrinsic curvature
The extrinsic curvature is
where
is the Lie derivative with respect to the unit normal. An alternative expression is
The right--hand side is symmetric in its free indices because
the unit normal is hypersurface orthogonal. That is,
satisfies
[edit] Acceleration
The acceleration of the observers who are at rest in the spacelike slices is
Useful results:
.
[edit] Spatial tensors and covariant derivative
Spatial tensors are tensors whose contraction with the unit normal on any index vanishes. Examples of spatial tensors are the
spatial metric
, the extrinsic curvature
, and the acceleration
.
The spatial covariant derivative acts on spatial tensors. It is defined by
, where
the symbol
denotes the projection of each free index with the projection operator
.
For example, let
denote a spatial tensor. Then
.
[edit] Time flow vector field
The time flow vector field
satisfies
It can be written as
where the shift vector
is a spatial vector field.
For any scalar or covariant spatial tensor (spatial tensor with all lower indices), the Lie derivative along the time flow vector
field can be written as
. For example, if
is
a scalar and
is a spatial covector, then
[edit] Adapted coordinates
[edit] Definitions
denote arbitrary spacetime coordinates.
denote spacetime coordinates that are adapted to the foliation
The arbitrary coordinates can be written as functions of the adapted coordinates:
. The
adapted coordinates can be written as functions of the arbitrary coordinates:
and
.
Adapted coordinates are defined such that
is the time flow vector field.
Define
. By the chain rule,
so that
[edit] Spatial tensors in adapted coordinates
The spatial metric, extrinsic curvature, and acceleration are
The inverse of the spatial metric is denoted
.
[edit] Projections
Let
The following results hold:
.
[edit] Metric in adapted coordinates
The shift vector is
The spacetime line element is
[edit] When the spacetime and adapted coordinates coincide
If
and
, the components of the
spacetime metric and its inverse are
The unit normal components are
The spatial metric (projection operator) components are
The determinant of the spacetime metric is
where
. Thus
[edit] Lie derivatives along the time flow vector field
For a scalar field
,
For a covector
(not necessarily spatial),
where
. In particular
.
Let
denote a contravariant vector and define
.
The results above can be used to rewrite the
relation
as
If
is a spatial vector, then
Corresponding results hold for higher rank spatial tensors. Thus, the projection with
and
of the Lie derivative of a spatial tensor along
the time flow vector field is equal to the partial derivative with respect to
.
[edit] Splitting of Riemann
The spacetime Riemann tensor is defined by
where
is a vector field. The spatial Riemann tensor is defined by
where
is a spatial vector field.
The symbol
denotes the operator that projects all free indices onto the foliation with factors
of
.
[edit] Gauss, Codazzi and Ricci equations
The Gauss, Codazzi, and Ricci equations are, respectively,
The last two terms of the Ricci equation can be written as
[edit] Riemann, Ricci and curvature scalar
Decompositions of the spacetime Riemann tensor, Ricci tensor, and curvature scalar are
[edit] Einstein tensor and equations
The decomposition of the Einstein tensor is
Let
denote the matter stress-energy-momentum tensor. The projection of the
Einstein equations
in the normal-normal direction is
where
is the matter mass density. The projection of the
Einstein equations in the normal-tangential direction is
where
is the matter momentum density.
The projection of the Einstein equations in the tangential-tangential direction is
where
is the spatial stress tensor.
[edit] Einstein equations and Riemann tensor in adapted coordinates
[edit] Projecting tensors
Define
If
is a spatial tensor, this can be inverted:
For spatial tensors define
These definitions generalize to higher rank tensors.
The derivative
is the covariant derivative compatible with the spatial metric, so that
.
[edit] Spacetime and spatial Lie derivatives
Results in the section Time flow vector field and the subsection on
Lie derivatives
show that for any spatial covariant tensor, such as the extrinsic curvature
, the Lie derivative
along the unit normal is
For any spatial tensor, the spacetime Lie derivative with respect to a spatial vector is equal to the spatial Lie derivative; for example,
.
Thus,
On the left, the symbol
denotes a Lie derivative in spacetime with respect to the spacetime
vector
. On the right it denotes a Lie derivative in space with respect to the spatial vector
.
The extrinsic curvature is
,
or
where
.
[edit] Einstein equations
The definition of the spatial Riemann tensor,
,
where
is a spatial vector, can be
projected to space:
The Einstein equations are obtained by projecting the results from the subsection on the Einstein equations. The Hamiltonian constraint:
where
is the trace of the extrinsic curvature. The momentum constraint:
The evolution equations:
which can be simplified with use of the Hamiltonian constraint.
[edit] Riemann tensor
The Gauss, Codazzi, and Ricci equations in adapted coordinates are
The decomposition of the Ricci tensor in adapted coordinates is
and the curvature scalar is
The upper
indices can be swapped for lower indices with use of the identity
where
is a spacetime tensor with only one index displayed.
