📝 SummarXiv

Abstract

We show that the structure of the Lorentz group in four dimensions is such that unimodular (trace-free) gravity in electrovacuum can be consistently represented as an algebraic condition on the symmetric product space of 2-forms. This condition states that the commutator between the Riemann tensor and the Hodge dual must be equal to the commutator between Hodge dual and an operator constructed from the Maxwell tensor; symbolically, $[\text{Riem}, \star] = [\star, F \boxtimes F]$. We show that this condition is equivalent to the trace-free field equations, that the right-hand-side vanishes if and only if the energy-momentum tensor vanishes (recovering the appropriate Einstein spacetime limit) and that this condition can be solved in the spherically symmetric ansatz to yield Reissner-Nordstrom-de Sitter uniquely. This analysis suggests that the conceptual distinction between unimodular gravity and General Relativity is one of emphasis on how irreducible representations of the Riemann tensor are constrained by the existence of energy-momentum and the associated field equations.