Geometric formulation for Palatini-Cartan gravity

Abstract

Motivated by the increasing efforts to understand the covariant structure of physical models associated with General Relativity using different kinds of geometric frameworks, in this article we analyze the four-dimensional Palatini-Cartan model for gravity, which is a well-known generalization of General Relativity, from the perspective of various geometric-covariant formalisms for classical field theory. At the Lagrangian level, we do not only recover the correct field equations of the theory, which are equivalent to the torsion-free condition and the Einstein equations, but we also study the gauge symmetries of the model in order to construct the Lagrangian momentum map associated with the action of the gauge symmetry group on the configuration space of the system and, consequently, its corresponding Noether currents. Within the multisymplectic approach, we analyze the action of the gauge symmetry group on the multi-momenta phase space of the model, and we also introduce the induced momentum map that allows us to recover the admissible Cauchy data of the system. Further, we also apply the algorithm to treat singular systems within the polysymplectic framework, in which, in order to obtain the correct field equations of the model, we introduce a non-trivial Dirac-Poisson bracket characterized by the generalized Moore-Penrose inverse of the matrix induced by the second class constraints of the system. Finally, using the multisymplectic framework as a starting point, we perform the space plus time decomposition of the system to recover the instantaneous Lagrangian and the extended Hamiltonian of the theory, as well as the gauge structure that characterize the Palatini-Cartan model for gravity within the instantaneous Dirac-Hamiltonian formalism.