Use this URL to cite or link to this record in EThOS: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.384343
Title: Some aspects of curvature in general relativity
Author: Rendall, Alan D.
ISNI:       0000 0001 3513 8446
Awarding Body: University of Aberdeen
Current Institution: University of Aberdeen
Date of Award: 1987
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Abstract:
The purpose of this thesis is to study in depth the relationship between the curvature of space-time and the other geometrical objects which naturally arise in general relativity. Most of the results obtained apply to the generic case. Chapter 1 contains a discussion of certain aspects of fibre bundle theory required in later chapters which may be unfamiliar to many relativists, while chapter 2 contains preliminary material on curvature in relativity and proves a continuity property of the algebraic classification of the Weyl and energy-momentum tensors. Chapter 3 describes the generic behaviour of the Riemann, Weyl and energy-momentum tensors, and chapter 5 goes on to use this description to investigate the relationship of the Riemann tensor to the metric, conformal class and connection of space-time in the generic case. In particular it is proved that the Riemann tensor uniquely and continuously determines the connections. The information obtained in chapter 3 on the algebraic type of curvature in the general case is related in chapter 4 to the topology of the underlying manifold. In chapter 6 a topology is defined on the set of sectional curvatures of all Lorentz metrics on a given manifold. The remainder of the chapter attempts to do for the sectional curvature what was done for the Riemann tensor in chapter 5 but, because sectional curvature is more difficult to handle, the results obtained are necessarily more modest.
Supervisor: Not available Sponsor: Not available
Qualification Name: Thesis (Ph.D.) Qualification Level: Doctoral
EThOS ID: uk.bl.ethos.384343  DOI: Not available
Keywords: Curvature of space-time
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