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arXiv · 1508.05569

Geometry of Area Without Length

Pei-Ming Ho·Takeo Inami
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Abstract

To define a free string by the Nambu-Goto action, all we need is the notion of area, and mathematically the area can be defined directly in the absence of a metric. Motivated by the possibility that string theory admits backgrounds where the notion of length is not well defined but a definition of area is given, we study space-time geometries based on the generalization of metric to area metric. In analogy with Riemannian geometry, we define the analogues of connections, curvatures and Einstein tensor. We propose a formulation generalizing Einstein's theory that will be useful if at a certain stage or a certain scale the metric is ill-defined and the space-time is better characterized by the notion of area. Static spherical solutions are found for the generalized Einstein equation in vacuum, including the Schwarzschild solution as a special case.

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Pei-Ming Ho, Takeo Inami. 2015-08-23. Geometry of Area Without Length. https://doi.org/10.1093/ptep/ptv180

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