Teleparallel gravity with non-vanishing curvature

Abstract

Guided by the rules of Einstein’s geometrization philosophy, a pure geometric field theory is constructed. The Lagrangian used to derive the field equations of the theory is a curvature scalar of a version of absolute parallelism (AP) geometry known in the literature as the parameterized absolute parallelism (PAP) geometry. The linear connection of this version has simultaneously non-vanishing curvature and torsion. Analysis of the theory obtained shows clearly that it is a pure gravity theory. The theory is a teleparallel one, since the building blocks of both PAP and AP geometries are the same. It is shown analytically that the theory has a trivial version in the AP-geometry, if gravity is attributed to curvature not to torsion. In the case of spherical symmetry, solutions of the field equations give rise to the Schwarzschild exterior field. The theory depends on two principles: covariance and unification. The weak equivalence principle is satisfied under a certain condition. The work preserves Einstein’s main idea that gravity is just space–time curvature, although it is not a metric theory. It is shown that the theory reduces to vacuum general relativity upon taking the parameter of the geometry b = 0.