Abstract
We derive a coordinate-independent formulation of the post-1-Newtonian approximation to general relativity. This formulation is a generalization of the Newton-Cartan geometric formulation of Newtonian gravity. It involves several fields and a connection, but no spacetime metric at the fundamental level. We show that the usual coordinate-dependent equations of post-Newtonian gravity are recovered when one specializes to asymptotically flat spacetimes and to appropriate classes of coordinates.
- Received 5 January 2011
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.84.044038
© 2011 American Physical Society