Abstract
Einstein’s theory of general relativity is written in terms of the variables obtained from a conformal-traceless decomposition of the spatial metric and extrinsic curvature. The determinant of the conformal metric is not restricted, so the action functional and equations of motion are invariant under conformal transformations. With this approach the conformal-traceless variables remain free of density weights. The conformal invariance of the equations of motion can be broken by imposing an evolution equation for the determinant of the conformal metric . Two conditions are considered, one in which is constant in time and one in which is constant along the unit normal to the spacelike hypersurfaces. This approach is used to write the Baumgarte-Shapiro-Shibata-Nakamura system of evolution equations in conformally invariant form. The presentation includes a discussion of the conformal thin sandwich construction of gravitational initial data, and the conformal flatness condition as an approximation to the evolution equations.
- Received 28 January 2005
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.71.104011
©2005 American Physical Society