Paths to gravitation via the gauging of parametrized field theories

Abstract

In special-relativistic physics, spacetime is imbued with a fixed, non-dynamical metric tensor. A path to gravitational theory is to promote this tensor to a genuine dynamical field. An alternative description of special-relativistic physics involves no fixed geometry but instead the inclusion of scalar fields $X^{I}(x^{\mu})$ which dynamically may take the form of inertial coordinates in spacetime. This suggests an alternative approach to gravity where the invariance of actions under global Poincar\'{e} transformations of $X^{I}$ is promoted to either a local Poincar\'{e} or local Lorentz symmetry via the introduction of gauge fields. Points of commonality and departure of the resulting gravitational theories as compared to General Relativity are discussed. It is shown that the model based on local Lorentz symmetry is an extension of General Relativity that can introduce a standard of time into the dynamics of the gravitational field and allows for spacetimes described by a Minkowski metric or flat Euclidean signature metric despite the gravitational gauge field possessing non-zero curvature.