Field Equations for Lovelock Gravity: An Alternative Route. (19th April 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chakraborty, Sumanta
• Other Names: Sakalli Izzet Academic Editor.
• Is Part Of: Advances in high energy physics. Volume 2018(2018)
• Publication Date: 2018-04-19
• Subjects: Particles (Nuclear physics) -- Periodicals; Particles (Nuclear physics); Periodicals; 539.76
• DOI: 10.1155/2018/6509045
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1687-7357

Abstract

Abstract : We present an alternative derivation of the gravitational field equations for Lovelock gravity starting from Newton's law, which is closer in spirit to the thermodynamic description of gravity. As a warm up exercise, we have explicitly demonstrated that, projecting the Riemann curvature tensor appropriately and taking a cue from Poisson's equation, Einstein's equations immediately follow. The above derivation naturally generalizes to Lovelock gravity theories where an appropriate curvature tensor satisfying the symmetries as well as the Bianchi derivative properties of the Riemann tensor has to be used. Interestingly, in the above derivation, the thermodynamic route to gravitational field equations, suited for null hypersurfaces, emerges quiet naturally.