Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2013/iii/paper-49/4/a/solution

Treat the printed as an orthonormal coframe, with frame metric . Work on a patch and , so the given real coframe exists. Define and . The exterior derivatives are
The connection 1-forms satisfying Cartan's first structure equation and metric compatibility are
All other forms vanish. With a Lorentzian frame, it is the lowered forms that are antisymmetric; the two mixed time–space forms are equal. These displayed forms solve the torsion-free structure equation, and uniqueness of the Levi-Civita connection identifies them as the required connection.
Apply Cartan's second structure equation. For example,
The remaining derivatives give and , with analogous forms for index 2. Put and . From ,
Therefore all six independent curvature 2-forms are
The other six are fixed by for , with no sum: equal for time–space pairs and opposite for spatial pairs. All diagonal forms are zero. The Lorentzian connection-form antisymmetry is essential to these signs.

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