Gravitational
stress-energy tensor is
a symmetric tensor of second valence (rank), which describes the energy density and energy flux density
of gravitational field in Lorentz-invariant theory of
gravitation. This tensor in the covariant theory of gravitation is included in equation for determining metric along with acceleration stress-energy tensor, pressure stress-energy tensor, dissipation stress-energy tensor and stress-energy tensor of
electromagnetic field. The covariant
derivative of gravitational stress-energy tensor determines density of
gravitational force acting on matter.
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In LITG the gravitational stress-energy tensor is
determined through gravitational tensor
and metric tensor
in
Lorentzian metrics: [1]
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where
is gravitational constant, and all gravitational quantities are
defined in electromagnetic wave representation, which uses the speed of light
.
After replacing
by the strong gravitational constant
the gravitational stress-energy tensor can be
used to describe strong gravitation at
the level of atoms and elementary particles in gravitational model of strong interaction.
Since gravitational tensor in LITG consists of components
of vectors of gravitational field strength
and gravitational
torsion field
, and the tensor
in
4-coordinates (ct, x,y,z)
consists of the numbers 0, 1, -1 and does not depend on coordinates and time,
so the components of gravitational stress-energy tensor can be written
explicitly in terms of components of the mentioned vectors:

The time-like components of the tensor denote:
1) The volumetric energy density of gravitational field,
negative in value
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2) The vector of energy flux density of gravitational
field or the Heaviside vector
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The components of the vector
are part of the corresponding tensor
components
, and due to the symmetry of the
tensor indices
.
According to the Heaviside theorem, the relation holds:
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where
is
the 3-vector of mass current density.
3) The space-like components of the tensor form a
submatrix 3 x 3, which is the 3-dimensional gravitational stress tensor, taken
with a minus sign. Gravitational stress tensor can be written as [1]
![]()
where
is the Kronecker delta,
if
and
if ![]()
Calculation of three-dimensional divergence of
gravitational stress tensor gives:
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where
denote the components of three-dimensional
density of gravitational force,
– components of Heaviside vector.
The gravitational stress-energy tensor has such form that
it allows us to find the 4-vector of gravitational force density
by
differentiation in four-dimensional space:
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As we can see from formula (1), the 4-vector of
gravitational force density can be calculated in a different way, through the
gravitational tensor with mixed indices
and the 4-vector of mass current
density
. This is due to the fact that in LITG the
gravitational field equations have the form:
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Expressing
from the latter equation
in terms of
and substituting in (1) and also
using definition of gravitational stress-energy tensor, we can prove the
validity of equation (1). The components of 4-vector of gravitational force
density are as follows:
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where
is 3-vector of gravitational force
density,
is density of moving
matter,
is 3-vector of mass current
density,
is 3-vector of particle velocity.
The
integral of (1) over the three-dimensional volume of a small particle or a
matter unit, calculated in the reference frame co-moving with the particle,
gives the gravitational four-force:
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In the
integration it was taken into account that
, where
is the mass density in the
co-moving reference frame,
is the invariant mass,
is the 4-velocity of the
particle,
is the 4-momentum of the
particle,
is the relativistic
momentum,
is the relativistic energy of the
particle. It is also assumed that the mass densities
and
include contributions from the
mass-energy of the proper gravitational field and the electromagnetic field of
the particle. The obtained 4-force is acting on the particle in the presence of the
gravitational field with the tensor
, and in some
cases we can neglect the proper gravitational field of the particle and
consider its motion only in the external field.
The
gravitational stress-energy tensor contains time-like components
, integrating which over the moving
volume we can calculate integral
vector of energy flux of gravitational field:
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where
is the energy of gravitational
field,
is a three-dimensional vector having the dimension of
momentum.
If in
this volume there is matter as a source of proper gravitational
(electromagnetic) field, we should
consider total integral vector of energy flux
, which includes contributions from all
the fields in the given volume, including acceleration
field and pressure field. In
particular, for a uniform spherical body with the radius
the
integral vector in view of proper
gravitational field of the body has the form: [2]
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where
is total gravitational energy of the body in
the reference frame in which the body is at rest,
is invariant inertial mass, which
includes contributions of the mass-energy from all the fields,
is gravitational mass, which is
equal to total mass
of all particles in the system, found by integrating
over volume of the body the product of invariant mass density and Lorentz
factor of the moving particles.
It is
assumed that the mass
equal to the mass
of matter particles without their
gravitational binding energy, and when the particles combine in the whole body
the bulk of their gravitational energy is compensated by internal energy of the
particles motion and the energy of the body pressure. Since the energy
is negative, then the condition
holds
, that is as long as the scattered
matter is undergoing gravitational contraction into the body of finite size,
the gravitational mass is increasing. We can
find also the invariant
energy of the physical system:
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A more accurate analysis of masses of the system shows that the following relationship holds:[3]
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where the gauge mass
is related to cosmological constant and
represents mass-energy of the matter’s particles in the four-potentials of the
system’s fields;
is the
inertial mass; the auxiliary mass
is equal to the product of the particles’ invariant mass
density by the volume of the body.
This can
be compared with the approach of the general relativity, in
which such total
mass of baryons
is used that when we add to it negative mass
from the gravitational field energy, we obtain the relativistic mass:
,
and there is a relation:
.
CTG is a generalization of LITG to any reference frames
and phenomena that occur in the presence of fields and accelerations of acting
forces. In CTG all deviations from LITG relations are described by the metric
tensor
which becomes a function of coordinates
and time. In addition, in equations the operator of 4-gradient
is
replaced by the covariant derivative
. After replacing
by
the gravitational stress-energy tensor
becomes in the following form:
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Gravitational
field is considered at the same time as a component of general
field. [4]]
Transforming contravariant indices in gravitational tensor
into covariant indices with the help of
metric tensor, and interchanging some indices, which are summed up, we obtain:
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Since gravitational tensor
with covariant indices consists of components
of vector of gravitational field strength
, divided by the speed of light
, and components of vector of
gravitational torsion field
, the formula shows that in curved
spacetime the gravitational stress-energy tensor is a sum of products of
components of these vectors with the corresponding coefficients of components
of metric tensor. And it turns out that the energy density of gravitational
field
contains mixed products of the form
, etc. There are no such products in
the flat Minkowski space, which leads to the fact that in spacetime of special
relativity the energy associated with the strength of gravitational field is
not mixed with the energy of torsion field. The same situation takes place in
electromagnetism: in Minkowski space the energy of electric field is calculated
separately from the energy of magnetic field, but in curved spacetime in the
energy density of the electromagnetic field there is additional energy from
mixed components with the products of components of strengths of electric and
magnetic fields.
Due to use of covariant differentiation in
four-dimensional space in CTG the gravitational field equations are changed as
well as the expression for 4-vector of gravitational force density (1), while
the expression for gravitational 4-force remains the same: [5]
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In CTG
the metric tensor is determined by solving the equation similar to
Hilbert-Einstein equation. In covariant indices this equation can be written as
follows: [6]
where
is the Ricci tensor,
is the scalar curvature,
is the coefficient to be
determined,
,
,
and
are the stress-energy tensors of
the acceleration field, pressure field, gravitational and electromagnetic
fields, respectively.
In
contrast to the general theory of relativity, in this equation, there is no
cosmological constant
, there is an additional constant
and the metric is dependent on
the gravitational stress-energy tensor. The latter is the consequence of the
fact that in CTG gravitation is an independent physical force as well as the
electromagnetic force, and therefore participates in determining the metric
according to the principles of the metric theory of relativity.
Using the
principle of least action allows us to deduce not only the formula for the
gravitational stress-energy tensor, but also gives the equation of motion
written in tensor form: [7]
The
covariant derivative of the acceleration
stress-energy tensor up to the
sign gives definition of total density of 4-force acting from substance on the
fields present in the system. At the
same time the operator of
proper-time-derivative is
applied to the 4-potential
of
acceleration field in the curved space: [8]
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where
is the acceleration tensor,
is the proper time of matter particle in
comoving reference frame.
The total
density of the 4-force of gravitational and electromagnetic fields and pressure
field is determined by transfer of the stress-energy tensors of the fields to
the right side of the equation of motion (2) and then applying the covariant
derivative: [4] [9]
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цhere
is the electromagnetic
tensor,
is the pressure
field tensor,
is the 4-vector of the electromagnetic current
density,
is the invariant charge density,
is the invariant mass
density,
and
are the 4-velocity and
4-acceleration of the matter particle.
In the
weak field limit, when the covariant derivative can be replaced by the partial
derivative, for the time-like component in (2), which has the index
, the local conservation law of energy and energy flux in matter and gravitational and
electromagnetic fields can be written as follows: [10] [11]
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where
is the vector of the acceleration
field energy flux density,
is the Heaviside vector,
is the Poynting vector,
is the vector of the pressure
field energy flux density, which are determined in the special
relativity.
According
to this law, the work of the field to accelerate the masses and charges is
compensated by the work of the matter to create the field. As a result, the
change in time of the total energy in a certain volume is possible only due to
the inflow of energy fluxes into this volume.
The
analysis of equation (2) for the space-like components with the index
in a weak field shows that,
taking into account the equation of motion of the matter in the field, all the
force densities and the change rates of the momentums of the matter and fields
are cancelled.
However
in general case, when the spacetime is significantly curved by the existing
fields and matter, in (2) we should consider the contributions with the
additional non-zero components of the metric tensor and their derivatives,
which are absent in the special theory of relativity. This follows from the
fact that the covariant derivative is expressed through the partial derivative
and the Christoffel coefficients. Since in CTG the purpose of using the metric
tensor is correction of the motion equations in order to take into account the
dependence on the fields of the time intervals and spatial distances, measured
by the electromagnetic (gravitational) waves, then such correction changes
notation of many physical quantities in the form of 4-vectors and tensors. In
particular, if we consider equation (2) as the local conservation law of energy and energy flux in matter and gravitational
and electromagnetic fields, then
appearing of additional contributions with the components of the metric tensor
leads to specification of the theory for the case of the curved space. And the
physical meaning of the results obtained for the flat spacetime and the weak
field remains unchanged.
As
another example we can consider the integral of the left side of (2) over the
entire four-dimensional space. In flat Minkowski space the covariant divergence
of the sum of the tensors becomes an ordinary 4-divergence, to which we can
apply the divergence theorem. By this theorem the integral of the 4-divergence
of some tensor over the 4-space can be replaced by the integral of the tensor
over the hypersurface surrounding the 4-volume, over which the integration is
done. If we choose a projection of this hypersurface on the hyperplane of the
constant time in the form of a three-dimensional volume the integral of the
left side of (2) is transformed into the integral of the sum of time components
of the tensors in (2) over the volume, which must equal to conserved integral
vector of the physical system under consideration:
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For these tensor components the integral vector
vanishes. [10]
Vanishing of the 4-vector allows us to explain the 4/3 problem, according to which the
mass-energy of gravitational or electromagnetic field in the flux of field of
moving system in 4/3 more than in the field energy of fixed system. On the other hand, according to, [11] the
generalized Poynting theorem and the integral vector should be considered
differently inside the matter and beyond its limits. As a result, the
occurrence of the 4/3 problem is associated with the fact that the time
components of the stress-energy tensors do not form four-vectors, and therefore
they cannot define the same mass in the fields’ energy and flux energy in principle. It
follows that the integral vector
cannot be considered as a four-momentum of the
system, determining only the distribution of energy and energy fluxes of the
fields of the system.[12] This is shown in more detail in the papers
describing the generalized 4-momentum [13] and the total 4-momentum of a
physical system. [14]
In GTR, there is a problem of determining the
gravitational stress-energy tensor. The reason is that due to the applied
principle of geometrization of physics, all manifestations of gravitation are
completely replaced by the geometric effect – the spacetime curvature. Thus,
the gravitational field is reduced to the metric field, set by the metric
tensor and its derivatives with respect to coordinates and time. Since in each
reference frame there is its own metric, so gravitation is not independent
physical interaction but is assumed as the consequence of the metric of the
reference frame. This leads to the fact that instead of the gravitational
stress-energy tensor in GTR there is a pseudotensor which depends on the
metric. The feature of this pseudotensor is that locally it can be made equal
to zero at any point by choosing the corresponding reference frame. As a
result, GTR have to refuse from the possibility to accurately determine the
localization of gravitational energy and the momentum of gravitational field in
a physical system, which significantly impedes understanding the physics of
gravitation on a fundamental level, and describing the phenomena in a classical
form. The purpose of Hilbert-Einstein equations in GTR is to find the metric:
These equations do not
contain the gravitational stress-energy tensor, which is present in the right
side of the equations for the metric in CTG. The metric in GTR depends only on
the matter and the electromagnetic field in the considered reference frame.
After finding such metric it is used to find the pseudotensor of the
energy-momentum of gravitational field, and this pseudotensor must depend only
on the metric tensor, be symmetrical with respect to the indices, and when
added to the stress-energy tensors of matter
and electromagnetic field
it must give zero divergence so that the conservation law of
energy-momentum of the matter and field would be satisfied. This pseudotensor
in a weak field, that is, in the special theory of relativity, must vanish in
order to ensure the principle of equivalence of free fall in the gravitational
field and inertial motion.
The Landau-Lifshitz pseudotensor corresponds to the
mentioned criteria. [15] There is also an Einstein pseudotensor, but it is not symmetrical with
respect to the indices. [16] Note that in contrast to GTR, in mathematics under pseudotensor we
understand something different, more precisely a tensor quantity, which changes
its sign when it is transformed into the coordinate reference frame with the
opposite orientation of the basis.
Since in GTR there is no gravitational stress-energy
tensor, the gravitational energy of a body is determined indirectly. For
example, one method is when by the given substance density and body size the
mass of the body is calculated, first in the absence of the metric’s influence,
and then taking into account the metric’s influence and the corresponding
change in the volume differential in the integral of the mass under influence
of the gravitational field. The difference of the mentioned masses is equated
to the mass-energy of gravitational field as to the manifestation of the metric
field. [17] In this case, the components of the metric tensor are used, found in GTR
from the Hilbert-Einstein equation for the metric.