The harmonic mapping character of Rosen’s bimetric theory of gravity and the geometry of its harmonic mapping space

Abstract

After showing that Rosen’s bimetric theory of gravity is a harmonic map, the geometry of the ten-dimensional harmonic mapping space (HMS), and of its nine-dimensional symmetric submanifolds, which are the leaves of the codimension one foliation of the HMS, is detailed. Both structures are global affinely symmetric spaces. For each, the metric, connections, and Riemann, Ricci, and scalar curvatures are given. The Killing vectors in each case are also worked out and related to the ‘‘conserved quantities’’ naturally associated with the harmonic mapping character of the theory. The structure of the Rosen HMS is very much like that determined by the DeWitt metric on the six-dimensional Wheeler superspace of all positive definite three-dimensional metrics. It is clear that a slight modification of the Rosen HMS metric will yield the corresponding metric on the space of all four-dimensional metrics of Lorentz signature. Finally, interesting avenues of further research are indicated, particularly with respect to the structure and comparison of Lagrangian-based gravitational theories which are similar to Einstein’s general relativity.