Einstein eld equations

The Einstein eld equations (EFE; also known as

"Einsteins equations") is the set of 10 equations in
Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity that de-
scribes the fundamental interaction of gravitation as a
result of spacetime being curved by mass and energy.[1]
First published by Einstein in 1915[2] as a tensor equation,
the EFE equate local spacetime curvature (expressed by
the Einstein tensor) with the local energy and momentum
within that spacetime (expressed by the stressenergy
tensor).[3]
Similar to the way that electromagnetic elds are deter-
mined using charges and currents via Maxwells equa-
tions, the EFE are used to determine the spacetime geom-
etry resulting from the presence of massenergy and lin-
ear momentum, that is, they determine the metric tensor EFE on a wall in Leiden
of spacetime for a given arrangement of stressenergy in
the spacetime. The relationship between the metric ten- speed of light in vacuum, and T is the stressenergy
sor and the Einstein tensor allows the EFE to be written tensor.
as a set of non-linear partial dierential equations when
used in this way. The solutions of the EFE are the com- The EFE is a tensor equation relating a set of symmetric
ponents of the metric tensor. The inertial trajectories of 4 4 tensors. Each tensor has 10 independent compo-
particles and radiation (geodesics) in the resulting geom- nents. The four Bianchi identities reduce the number of
etry are then calculated using the geodesic equation. independent equations from 10 to 6, leaving the metric
with four gauge xing degrees of freedom, which corre-
As well as obeying local energymomentum conserva- spond to the freedom to choose a coordinate system.
tion, the EFE reduce to Newtons law of gravitation where
the gravitational eld is weak and velocities are much less Although the Einstein eld equations were initially for-
than the speed of light.[4] mulated in the context of a four-dimensional theory, some
theorists have explored their consequences in n dimen-
Exact solutions for the EFE can only be found under sim- sions. The equations in contexts outside of general rela-
plifying assumptions such as symmetry. Special classes tivity are still referred to as the Einstein eld equations.
of exact solutions are most often studied as they model The vacuum eld equations (obtained when T is identi-
many gravitational phenomena, such as rotating black cally zero) dene Einstein manifolds.
holes and the expanding universe. Further simplication
is achieved in approximating the actual spacetime as at Despite the simple appearance of the equations they are
spacetime with a small deviation, leading to the linearized actually quite complicated. Given a specied distribution
EFE. These equations are used to study phenomena such of matter and energy in the form of a stressenergy ten-
as gravitational waves. sor, the EFE are understood to be equations for the metric
tensor g, as both the Ricci tensor and scalar curvature
depend on the metric in a complicated nonlinear manner.
In fact, when fully written out, the EFE are a system of 10
1 Mathematical form coupled, nonlinear, hyperbolic-elliptic partial dierential
equations.
The Einstein eld equations (EFE) may be written in the
One can write the EFE in a more compact form by den-
form:[5][1]
ing the Einstein tensor

G = R 12 Rg ,
where R is the Ricci curvature tensor, R is the scalar
curvature, g is the metric tensor, is the cosmological which is a symmetric second-rank tensor that is a function
constant, G is Newtons gravitational constant, c is the of the metric. The EFE can then be written as

1
2 2 THE COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT

1.2 Equivalent formulations

8G
G + g = T . Taking the trace with respect to the metric of both sides
c4
of the EFE one gets
Using geometrized units where G = c = 1, this can be
rewritten as
D 8G
R R + D = 4 T
2 c
G + g = 8T .
where D is the spacetime dimension. This expression can
The expression on the left represents the curvature of be rewritten as
spacetime as determined by the metric; the expression on
the right represents the matter/energy content of space-
time. The EFE can then be interpreted as a set of equa- R + D = 8G T .
2 1 2 1
D c4 D
tions dictating how matter/energy determines the curva-
ture of spacetime.
If one adds 1/2g times this to the EFE, one gets the
These equations, together with the geodesic equation,[6] following equivalent trace-reversed form
which dictates how freely-falling matter moves through
space-time, form the core of the mathematical formula-
tion of general relativity. ( )
g 8G 1
R D = 4 T T g .
2 1
c D2
1.1 Sign convention
For example, in D = 4 dimensions this reduces to
The above form of the EFE is the standard established
by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler.[7] The authors analyzed
8G ( )
all conventions that exist and classied according to the R g = 4 T 21 T g .
c
following three signs (S1, S2, S3):
Reversing the trace again would restore the original EFE.
The trace-reversed form may be more convenient in some
g = [S1] diag(1, +1, +1, +1) cases (for example, when one is interested in weak-eld
( )limit and can replace g in the expression on the right
R = [S2] , , + with the Minkowski metric without signicant loss of ac-
curacy).
8G
G = [S3] 4 T
c
The third sign above is related to the choice of convention 2 The cosmological constant
for the Ricci tensor:
Main article: Cosmological constant

R = [S2] [S3] R
Einstein modied his original eld equations to include a
With these denitions Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler clas- cosmological constant term proportional to the metric
sify themselves as (+ + +), whereas Weinberg (1972)[8] is
(+ ), Peebles (1980) and Efstathiou (1990) are ( + +),
while Peacock (1994), Rindler (1977), Atwater (1974), R 1 R g + g = 8G T .
2 c4
Collins Martin & Squires (1989) are ( + ).
Authors including Einstein have used a dierent sign in Since is constant, the energy conservation law is unaf-
their denition for the Ricci tensor which results in the fected.
sign of the constant on the right side being negative The cosmological constant term was originally introduced
by Einstein to allow for a universe that is not expanding
or contracting. This eort was unsuccessful because:
8G
R 12 Rg g = 4 T .
c
the universe described by this theory was unstable,
The sign of the (very small) cosmological term would and
change in both these versions, if the (+ ) metric sign
convention is used rather than the MTW ( + + +) metric observations by Edwin Hubble conrmed that our
sign convention adopted here. universe is expanding.
3.3 The correspondence principle 3

So, Einstein abandoned , calling it the biggest blunder 3.3 The correspondence principle
[he] ever made.[9]
The EFE reduce to Newtons law of gravity by using both
Despite Einsteins motivation for introducing the cos-
the weak-eld approximation and the slow-motion ap-
mological constant term, there is nothing inconsistent
proximation. In fact, the constant G appearing in the EFE
with the presence of such a term in the equations. For
is determined by making these two approximations.
many years the cosmological constant was almost uni-
versally considered to be 0. However, recent improved
astronomical techniques have found that a positive value
of is needed to explain the accelerating universe.[10][11]
Einstein thought of the cosmological constant as an inde-
pendent parameter, but its term in the eld equation can
4 Vacuum eld equations
also be moved algebraically to the other side, written as
part of the stressenergy tensor:

c4
(vac)
T = g .
8G
The resulting vacuum energy is constant and given by

c2
vac =
8G
The existence of a cosmological constant is thus equiva-
lent to the existence of a non-zero vacuum energy. Thus,
the terms cosmological constant and vacuum energy
are now used interchangeably in general relativity.

3 Features
A Swiss commemorative coin from 1979, showing the vacuum
3.1 Conservation of energy and momen- eld equations with zero cosmological constant (top).
tum
If the energy-momentum tensor T is zero in the region
General relativity is consistent with the local conservation under consideration, then the eld equations are also re-
of energy and momentum expressed as ferred to as the vacuum eld equations. By setting T =
0 in the trace-reversed eld equations, the vacuum equa-
tions can be written as
T = T ; = 0

R = 0 .

which expresses the local conservation of stressenergy. In the case of nonzero cosmological constant, the equa-
This conservation law is a physical requirement. With his tions are
eld equations Einstein ensured that general relativity is
consistent with this conservation condition.

R = D g .
2 1
3.2 Nonlinearity
The solutions to the vacuum eld equations are called
The nonlinearity of the EFE distinguishes general relativ- vacuum solutions. Flat Minkowski space is the simplest
ity from many other fundamental physical theories. For example of a vacuum solution. Nontrivial examples in-
example, Maxwells equations of electromagnetism are clude the Schwarzschild solution and the Kerr solution.
linear in the electric and magnetic elds, and charge and Manifolds with a vanishing Ricci tensor, R = 0, are
current distributions (i.e. the sum of two solutions is also referred to as Ricci-at manifolds and manifolds with a
a solution); another example is Schrdingers equation of Ricci tensor proportional to the metric as Einstein mani-
quantum mechanics which is linear in the wavefunction. folds.
4 8 POLYNOMIAL FORM

5 EinsteinMaxwell equations made in these cases. These are commonly referred to as

post-Newtonian approximations. Even so, there are nu-
See also: Maxwells equations in curved spacetime merous cases where the eld equations have been solved
completely, and those are called exact solutions.[14]

If the energy-momentum tensor T is that of an The study of exact solutions of Einsteins eld equations
electromagnetic eld in free space, i.e. if the is one of the activities of cosmology. It leads to the pre-
electromagnetic stressenergy tensor diction of black holes and to dierent models of evolution
of the universe.
One can also discover new solutions of the Einstein eld
1 ( 1 )
equations via the method of orthonormal frames as pi-
T
= F F + 4 g F F
0 oneered by Ellis and MacCallum.[15] In this approach,
is used, then the Einstein eld equations are called the the Einstein eld equations are reduced to a set of cou-
EinsteinMaxwell equations (with cosmological constant pled, nonlinear, ordinary dierential [16]
equations. As dis-
, taken to be zero in conventional relativity theory): cussed by Hsu and Wainwright, self-similar solutions
to the Einstein eld equations are xed points of the re-
sulting dynamical system. New solutions have been dis-
8G ( )
covered using these methods by LeBlanc [17] and Kohli
R 12 Rg +g = 4 F F + 41 g F F and. Haslam.[18]
c 0

Additionally, the covariant Maxwell equations are also

applicable in free space: 7 The linearized EFE

F ; = 0 Main article: Linearized gravity

1 1
F[;] = 3 (F; + F; + F; ) = 3 (F, + F, + F, ) = 0.
The nonlinearity of the EFE makes nding exact solutions
where the semicolon represents a covariant derivative, dicult. One way of solving the eld equations is to make
and the brackets denote anti-symmetrization. The rst an approximation, namely, that far from the source(s)
equation asserts that the 4-divergence of the two-form F of gravitating matter, the gravitational eld is very weak
is zero, and the second that its exterior derivative is zero. and the spacetime approximates that of Minkowski space.
From the latter, it follows by the Poincar lemma that in The metric is then written as the sum of the Minkowski
a coordinate chart it is possible to introduce an electro- metric and a term representing the deviation of the true
magnetic eld potential A such that metric from the Minkowski metric, with terms that are
quadratic in or higher powers of the deviation being ig-
nored. This linearization procedure can be used to inves-
F = A; A; = A, A, tigate the phenomena of gravitational radiation.

in which the comma denotes a partial derivative. This

is often taken as equivalent to the covariant Maxwell 8 Polynomial form
equation from which it is derived.[12] However, there are
global solutions of the equation which may lack a globally
One might think that EFE are non-polynomial since they
dened potential.[13]
contain the inverse of the metric tensor. However, the
equations can be arranged so that they contain only the
metric tensor and not its inverse. First, the determinant
6 Solutions of the metric in 4 dimensions can be written:

Main article: Solutions of the Einstein eld equations

1
det(g) = 24 g g g g
The solutions of the Einstein eld equations are metrics using the Levi-Civita symbol; and the inverse of the met-
of spacetime. These metrics describe the structure of ric in 4 dimensions can be written as:
the spacetime including the inertial motion of objects in
the spacetime. As the eld equations are non-linear, they
cannot always be completely solved (i.e. without making 1
6 g g g
approximations). For example, there is no known com- g = .
det(g)
plete solution for a spacetime with two massive bodies
in it (which is a theoretical model of a binary star sys- Substituting this denition of the inverse of the metric
tem, for example). However, approximations are usually into the equations then multiplying both sides by det(g)

until there are none left in the denominator results in poly- [10] Wahl, Nicolle (2005-11-22). Was Einsteins 'biggest
nomial equations in the metric tensor and its rst and sec-
ond derivatives. The action from which the equations are
derived can also be written in polynomial form by suitable
[11] Turner, Michael S. (May 2001).
redenitions of the elds.[19]
9 See also
EinsteinHilbert action
Equivalence principle
Exact solutions in general relativity
General relativity resources
History of general relativity
HamiltonJacobiEinstein equation
Mathematics of general relativity
Ricci calculus
10 Notes
[1] Einstein, Albert (1916). The Foundation of the
General Theory of Relativity. Annalen der Physik.
354 (7): 769. Bibcode:1916AnP...354..769E.
doi:10.1002/andp.19163540702. Archived from
the original (PDF) on 2012-02-06.
[2] Einstein, Albert (November 25, 1915). Die Feldgle-
ichungen der Gravitation. Sitzungsberichte der Preussis-
chen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin: 844847.
Retrieved 2006-09-12.
[3] Misner, Charles W.; Thorne, Kip S.; Wheeler, John
Archibald (1973). Gravitation. San Francisco: W. H.
Freeman. ch. 34, p. 916. ISBN 978-0-7167-0344-0.
[4] Carroll, Sean (2004). Spacetime and Geometry An In-
troduction to General Relativity. pp. 151159. ISBN 0-
8053-8732-3.
[5] Grn, yvind; Hervik, Sigbjorn (2007). Einsteins Gen-
eral Theory of Relativity: With Modern Applications in
Cosmology (illustrated ed.). Springer Science & Business
Media. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-387-69200-5.
[6] Weinberg, Steven (1993). Dreams of a Final Theory: the
search for the fundamental laws of nature. Vintage Press.
pp. 107, 233. ISBN 0-09-922391-0.
[7] Misner, Thorne & Wheeler 1973
[8] Weinberg 1972
[9] Gamow, George (April 28, 1970). My World Line : An
Informal Autobiography. Viking Adult. ISBN 0-670-
50376-2. Retrieved 2007-03-14.
5
blunder' a stellar success?". Archived from the original
on 2007-03-07. Retrieved 2007-03-14.
Making
Sense of the New Cosmology. Int. J. Mod.
Phys. A. 17 (S1): 180196. arXiv:astro-
ph/0202008 . Bibcode:2002IJMPA..17S.180T.
doi:10.1142/S0217751X02013113.
[12] Brown, Harvey (2005). Physical Relativity. Oxford Uni-
versity Press. p. 164. ISBN 978-0-19-927583-0.
[13] Trautman, Andrzej (1977). Solutions of the Maxwell
and YangMills equations associated with Hopf b-
rings. International Journal of Theoretical Physics.
16 (9): 561565. Bibcode:1977IJTP...16..561T.
doi:10.1007/BF01811088..
[14] Stephani, Hans; Kramer, D.; MacCallum, M.; Hoense-
laers, C.; Herlt, E. (2003). Exact Solutions of Einsteins
Field Equations. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-
521-46136-7.
[15] Ellis, G. F. R.; MacCallum, M. (1969). A class of ho-
mogeneous cosmological models. Comm. Math. Phys.
12 (2): 108141.
[16] Hsu, L.; Wainwright, J (1986). Self-similar spatially ho-
mogeneous cosmologies: orthogonal perfect uid and vac-
uum solutions. Class. Quantum Grav. 3: 11051124.
[17] LeBlanc, V. G. (1997). Asymptotic states of magnetic
Bianchi I cosmologies. Class. Quantum Grav. 14: 2281.
[18] Kohli, Ikjyot Singh; Haslam, Michael C. (2013). Dy-
namical systems approach to a Bianchi type I viscous mag-
netohydrodynamic model. Phys. Rev. D. 88: 063518.
[19] Katanaev, M. O. (July 7, 2005). Polynomial form of the
HilbertEinstein action. Gen. Rel. Grav. 38: 1233
1240. arXiv:gr-qc/0507026 . doi:10.1007/s10714-006-
0310-5.
11 References
See General relativity resources.
Misner, Charles; Thorne, Kip S.; Wheeler, John
Archibald (1973), Gravitation, San Francisco: W.
H. Freeman, p. 501, ISBN 0-7167-0344-0
Weinberg, Steven (1972), Gravitation and Cosmol-
ogy, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-92567-5
12 External links
Hazewinkel, Michiel, ed. (2001), Einstein equa-
tions, Encyclopedia of Mathematics, Springer,
ISBN 978-1-55608-010-4
6 12 EXTERNAL LINKS

Caltech Tutorial on Relativity A simple introduc-

tion to Einsteins Field Equations.
The Meaning of Einsteins Equation An explana-
tion of Einsteins eld equation, its derivation, and
some of its consequences

Video Lecture on Einsteins Field Equations by MIT

Physics Professor Edmund Bertschinger.

Arch and scaold: How Einstein found his eld

equations Physics Today November 2015, History
of the Development of the Field Equations
The Einstein eld equation on the wall of the Mu-
seum Boerhaave in downtown Leiden
 7

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