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Christoffel Symbols

The document defines Christoffel symbols, which are coefficients that appear in the equations defining parallel transport and geodesics on a manifold. Christoffel symbols of the first and second kind are derived from the metric and Levi-Civita connection on the manifold. They find frequent use in Einstein's general relativity, where they are used to calculate spacetime geometry from the Einstein field equations and determine the paths of particles and light by solving geodesic equations.

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Ayub Faridi
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686 views1 page

Christoffel Symbols

The document defines Christoffel symbols, which are coefficients that appear in the equations defining parallel transport and geodesics on a manifold. Christoffel symbols of the first and second kind are derived from the metric and Levi-Civita connection on the manifold. They find frequent use in Einstein's general relativity, where they are used to calculate spacetime geometry from the Einstein field equations and determine the paths of particles and light by solving geodesic equations.

Uploaded by

Ayub Faridi
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Christoffel symbols Defination

If xi, i = 1,2,...,n, is a local coordinate system on a manifold M, then the tangent vectors

define a basis of the tangent space of M at each point.

Christoffel symbols of the first kind


The Christoffel symbols of the first kind can be derived from the Christoffel symbols of the second kind and the metric,

Christoffel symbols of the second kind


The Christoffel symbols of the second kind, using the definition symmetric in i and j,[2] (sometimes kij ) are defined as the unique coefficients such that the equation

holds, where

is the Levi-Civita connection on M taken in the coordinate direction ei. :

The Christoffel symbols can be derived from the vanishing of the covariant derivative of the metric tensor

Uses The Christoffel symbols find frequent use in Einstein's theory of general relativity, where spacetime is represented by a curve in 4-dimensional. The Einstein field equationswhich determine the geometry of spacetime in the presence of mattercontain the Ricci tensor, and so calculating the Christoffel symbols is essential. Once the geometry is determined, the paths of particles and light beams are calculated by solving the geodesic equations in which the Christoffel symbols explicitly appear.

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