The Spinning and Curving of Spacetime: The Electromagnetic and Gravitational Fields in the Evans Field Theory

The unification of the gravitational and electromagnetic fields achieved geometrically in the generally covariant unified field theory of Evans implies that electromagnetism is the spinning of spacetime and gravitation is the curving of spacetime. The homogeneous unified field equation of Evans is a balance of spacetime spin and curvature and governs the influence of electromagnetism on gravitation using the first Bianchi identity of differential geometry. The second Bianchi identity of differential geometry is shown to lead to the conservation law of the Evans unified field, and also to a generalization of the Einstein field equation for the unified field. Rigorous mathematical proofs are given in appendices of the four equations of differential geometry which are the cornerstones of the Evans unified field theory: the first and second Maurer-Cartan structure relations and the first and second Bianchi identities. As an example of the theory, the origin of wavenumber and frequency is traced to elements of the torsion tensor of spinning spacetime.     

On the axioms of topological electromagnetism

The axioms of topological electromagnetism that were given by Hehl, Obukhov, and Rubilar are refined by the use of geometrical and topological notions that are found on orientable manifolds. The central problem of defining the spacetime electromagnetic constitutive law in terms of the geometrical and topological structure of the spacetime manifold is elaborated upon in the linear and nonlinear cases. The manner by which the spacetime metric might follow from the electromagnetic constitutive law is examined in the linear case. The possibility that the intersection form of the spacetime manifold might play a role in defining a topological basis for a nonlinear electromagnetic constitutive law is explored. The manner by which electromagnetic wave motion relates to the geometric structure is also discussed.     

Covariant jump conditions in electromagnetism

A generally covariant four-dimensional representation of Maxwell’s electrodynamics in a generic material medium can be achieved straightforwardly in the metric-free formulation of electromagnetism. In this setup, the electromagnetic phenomena are described by two tensor fields, which satisfy Maxwell’s equations. A generic tensorial constitutive relation between these fields is an independent ingredient of the theory. By use of different constitutive relations (local and non-local, linear and non-linear, etc.), a wide area of applications can be covered. In the current paper, we present the jump conditions for the fields and for the energy–momentum tensor on an arbitrarily moving surface between two media. From the differential and integral Maxwell equations, we derive the covariant boundary conditions, which are independent of any metric and connection. These conditions include the covariantly defined surface current and are applicable to an arbitrarily moving smooth curved boundary surface. As an application of the presented jump formulas, we derive a Lorentzian type metric as a condition for existence of the wave front in isotropic media. This result holds for ordinary materials as well as for metamaterials with negative material constants.     

Causal structure and algebraic classification of non-dissipative linear optical media

In crystal optics and quantum electrodynamics in gravitational vacua, the propagation of light is not described by a metric, but an area metric geometry. In this article, this prompts us to study conditions for linear electrodynamics on area metric manifolds to be well-posed. This includes an identification of the timelike future cones and their duals associated to an area metric geometry, and thus paves the ground for a discussion of the related local and global causal structures in standard fashion. In order to provide simple algebraic criteria for an area metric manifold to present a consistent spacetime structure, we develop a complete algebraic classification of area metric tensors up to general transformations of frame. This classification, valuable in its own right, is then employed to prove a theorem excluding the majority of algebraic classes of area metrics as viable spacetimes. Physically, these results classify and drastically restrict the viable constitutive tensors of non-dissipative linear optical media.     

Equivalence principle and electromagnetic field: no birefringence,no dilaton,and no axion

The coupling of the electromagnetic field to gravity is discussed. In the premetric axiomatic approach based on the experimentally well established conservation laws of electric charge and magnetic flux, the Maxwell equations are the same irrespective of the presence or absence of gravity. In this sense, one can say that the charge “substratum” and the flux “substratum” are not influenced by the gravitational field directly. However, the interrelation between these fundamental substrata, formalized as the spacetime relation H = H(F) between the 2-forms of the electromagnetic excitation H and the electromagnetic field strength F, is affected by gravity. Thus the validity of the equivalence principle for electromagnetism depends on the form of the spacetime relation. We discuss the nonlocal and local linear constitutive relations and demonstrate that the spacetime metric can be accompanied also by skewon, dilaton, and axion fields. All these premetric companions of the metric may eventually lead to a violation of the equivalence principle.     

Stochastic Spacetime and Brownian Motion of Test Particles

The operational meaning of spacetime fluctuations is discussed. Classical spacetime geometry can be viewed as encoding the relations between the motions of test particles in the geometry. By analogy, quantum fluctuations of spacetime geometry can be interpreted in terms of the fluctuations of these motions. Thus, one can give meaning to spacetime fluctuations in terms of observables which describe the Brownian motion of test particles. We will first discuss some electromagnetic analogies, where quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field induce Brownian motion of test particles. We next discuss several explicit examples of Brownian motion caused by a fluctuating gravitational field. These examples include lightcone fluctuations, variations in the flight times of photons through the fluctuating geometry, and fluctuations in the expansion parameter given by a Langevin version of the Raychaudhuri equation. The fluctuations in this parameter lead to variations in the luminosity of sources. Other phenomena that can be linked to spacetime fluctuations are spectral line broadening and angular blurring of distant sources.     

On linear electromagnetic constitutive laws that define almost‐complex structures

It is shown that not all linear electromagnetic constitutive laws will define almost‐complex structures on the bundle of 2‐forms on the spacetime manifold when composed with the Poincaré duality isomorphism, but only a restricted class of them that includes linear spatially isotropic and some bi‐isotropic constitutive laws. Although this result does not trivialize the formulation of the basic equations of pre‐metric electromagnetism, it does affect their reduction to metric electromagnetism by its effect on the types of media that are reducible, and possibly its effect on the way that such media support the propagation of electromagnetic waves.     

Doubled conformal compactification

We use Weyl transformations between the Minkowski spacetime and dS/AdS spacetime to show that one cannot well define the electrodynamics globally on the ordinary conformal compactification of the Minkowski spacetime (or dS/AdS spacetime), where the electromagnetic field has a sign factor (and thus is discountinuous) at the light cone. This problem is intuitively and clearly shown by the Penrose diagrams, from which one may find the remedy without too much difficulty. We use the Minkowski and dS spacetimes together to cover the compactified space, which in fact leads to the doubled conformal compactification. On this doubled conformal compactification, we obtain the globally well-defined electrodynamics.     

Observers in spacetime and nonlocality

Characteristics of observers in relativity theory are critically examined. For field measurements in Minkowski spacetime, the Bohr‐Rosenfeld principle implies that the connection between actual (i.e., noninertial) and inertial observers must be nonlocal. Nonlocal electrodynamics of non‐uniformly rotating observers is discussed and the consequences of this theory for the phenomenon of spin‐rotation coupling are briefly explored.     

TheB (3) field as a link between gravitation and electromagnetism in the vacuum

The emergence of theB ⁽³⁾ field in vacuo has shown that electromagnetism is non-Abelian and similar in structure to gravitation. In this paper the Christoffel symbol used in general relativity is developed for electromagnetism in curvilinear coordinates: The former becomes describable as the antisymmetric part of the gravitational Ricci tensor. Therefore gravitation and electromagnetism are respectively the symmetric and antisymmetric parts of thesame Ricci tensor within a proportionality factor. Both fields are obtained from the Riemann curvature tensor, both are expressions of curvature in spacetime.     

On the boundary-value problems and the validity of the Post constraint in modern electromagnetism

We recall that the theory of electromagnetism consists of three building blocks: (a) the inhomogeneous Maxwell equations for the electric and magnetic excitations (D,H) (which reflects charge conservation), (b) the homogeneous Maxwell equations for the electric and magnetic field strengths (E,B) (which reflects flux conservation), and (c) the constitutive relation between (D,H) and (E,B). In the recent paper [A. Lakhtakia, Boundary-value problems and the validity of the Post constraint in modern electromagnetism, Optik 117 (2006) 188-192], Lakhtakia proposed to change the standard boundary conditions in electrodynamics in order to exclude certain constitutive parameters. We show that this is inadmissible both from the macroscopic and the microscopic points of view.     

Quantum fluctuations and dynamical chaos: An effective potential approach

We discuss the intimate connection between the chaotic dynamics of a classical field theory and the instability of the one-loop effective action of the associated quantum field theory. Using the example of massless scalar electrodynamics, we show how the radiatively induced spontaneous symmetry breaking stabilizes the vacuum state against chaos, and we speculate that monopole condensation can have the same effect in non-Abelian gauge theories.     

Connections and geodesics in the spacetime tangent bundle

Recent interest in maximal proper acceleration as a possible principle generalizing the theory of relativity can draw on the differential geometry of tangent bundles, pioneered by K. Yano, E. T. Davies, and S. Ishihara. The differential equations of geodesics of the spacetime tangent bundle are reduced and investigated in the special case of a Riemannian spacetime base manifold. Simple relations are described between the natural lift of ordinary spacetime geodesics and geodesics in the spacetime tangent bundle.     

Derivation of O(3) Electrodynamics from the Irreducible Representations of the Einstein Group

By considering the irreducible representations of the Einstein group (the Lie group of general relativity), Sachs [1] has shown that the electromagnetic field tensor can be developed in terms of a metric q , which is a set of four quaternion-valued components of four-vector. Using this method, it is shown that the electromagnetic field vanishes [1] in flat spacetime, and that electromagnetism in general is a non-Abelian field theory. In this paper the non-Abelian component of the field tensor is developed to show the presence of the B ⁽³⁾ field of the O(3) electrodynamics, and the basic structure of O(3) electrodynamics is shown to be a sub-structure of general relativity as developed by Sachs. The extensive empirical evidence for both theories is summarized.     

Quantum gravity model with fundamental spinor fields

We discuss the possibility that gravitational potentials (metric, coframe and connection) may emerge as composite fields from more fundamental spinor constituents. We use the formalism of Poincaré gauge gravity as an appropriate theoretical scheme for the rigorous development of such an approach. We postulate the constitutive relations of an elastic Cosserat type continuum that models spacetime. These generalized Hooke and MacCullagh type laws consistently take into account the translational and Lorentz rotational deformations, respectively. The resulting theory extends the recently proposed Diakonov model. An intriguing feature of our theory is that in the lowest approximation it reproduces Heisenberg’s nonlinear spinor model.     

Classical versus quantum gravity

Is Einstein's metric theory of gravitation to be quantized to yield a complete and logically consistent picture of the geometry of the real world in the presence of quantized material sources? To answer this question, we give arguments that there is a consistent way to extend general relativity to small distances by incorporating further geometric quantities at the level of the connection into the theory and introducing corresponding field equations for their determination, allowing thereby the metric and the Levi-Civita connection to remain classical quantities. The dualism between matter and geometry is extended to quantized fields with the help of a Hibert bundle ? raised over a Riemann-Cartan spacetime. Quantized subnuclear matter fields (generalized quantum mechanical wave functions) are sections on ? which determine generalized bilinear currents acting as sourc currents for the bundle geometry at small distances. The established dualism between matter and the underlying bundle geometry contains general relativity as a classical part.     

Wave propagation in axion electrodynamics

In this paper, the axion contribution to the electromagnetic wave propagation is studied. First we show how the axion electrodynamics model can be embedded into a premetric formalism of Maxwell electrodynamics. In this formalism, the axion field is not an arbitrary added Chern–Simon term of the Lagrangian, but emerges in a natural way as an irreducible part of a general constitutive tensor. We show that in order to represent the axion contribution to the wave propagation it is necessary to go beyond the geometric approximation, which is usually used in the premetric formalism. We derive a covariant dispersion relation for the axion modified electrodynamics. The wave propagation in this model is studied for an axion field with timelike, spacelike and null derivative covectors. The birefringence effect emerges in all these classes as a signal of Lorentz violation. This effect is however completely different from the ordinary birefringence appearing in classical optics and in premetric electrodynamics. The axion field does not simple double the ordinary light cone structure. In fact, it modifies the global topological structure of light cones surfaces. In CFJ-electrodynamics, such a modification results in violation of causality. In addition, the optical metrics in axion electrodynamics are not pseudo-Riemannian. In fact, for all types of the axion field, they are even non-Finslerian.     

Geometry of manifolds with area metric: Multi-metric backgrounds

We construct the differential geometry of smooth manifolds equipped with an algebraic curvature map acting as an area measure. Area metric geometry provides a spacetime structure suitable for the discussion of gauge theories and strings, and is considerably more general than Lorentzian geometry. Our construction of geometrically relevant objects, such as an area metric compatible connection and derived tensors, makes essential use of a decomposition theorem due to Gilkey, whereby we generate the area metric from a finite collection of metrics. Employing curvature invariants for multi-metric backgrounds we devise a class of gravity theories with inherently stringy character, and discuss gauge matter actions.     

Short-distance analysis of the triangle anomaly in quantum electrodynamics

The connection between the existence of a non-zero triangle anomaly and the short-distance properties of Green functions in quantum electrodynamics (QED) are re-examined. We find that part of a previous analysis must be corrected, and we record some additional observations on the internal consistency of finite theories of QED.     

Conventionalism and general relativity

We argue that the geometry of spacetime is a convention that can be freely chosen by the scientist; no experiment can ever determine this geometry of spacetime, only the behavior of matter in space and time. General relativity is then rewritten in terms of an arbitrary conventional geometry of spacetime in which particle trajectories are determined by forces in that geometry, and the forces determined by fields produced by sources in that geometry. As an example, we consider radial trajectories in the field of a single particle expressed in the spacetime of special relativity.