Classical theory of the interaction between a spinor field and the gravitational field: First-order field equations

The classical theory of the interaction of a neutral spin-1/2 Dirac field and the gravitational field is studied. For the purely gravitational part of the Lagrangian, written in terms of a vierbein and the local connection coefficient _ab, (regarded as independent field variables), the usual first-order form is adopted. For the Dirac part, however, a different choice is made, in which the covariant derivative of is built with the aid of the vierbein instead of with _ab. This still yields a first-order formalism, but one in which _ab is related to the vierbein in the same way as it would be in the absence of. This ensures that the global connection remains symmetric in andv in the presence of. The way in which the vierbein field equation leads to a familiar Einstein equation with a symmetric and conserved stress tensor on its right side is also analyzed.