Magnetic part of the Weyl tensor 2026-10-06
In four spacetime dimensions, relative to a timelike unit normal , define , with the chosen spacetime metric volume tensor. This is the dual tidal part of the Weyl tensor. Normal contractions vanish by curvature and volume-tensor antisymmetry. Its sign depends on the specified orientation and dualization convention.
Metric determinant in a 3+1 decomposition 2026-10-06
For a positive lapse function , shift vector and spatial induced metric , the block metric has and . Its block determinant is . Therefore the metric volume tensor contracted with the future unit normal restricts to the spatial volume tensor: .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 309 1 iii 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The electric part of the Weyl tensor has one normal in each antisymmetric pair of the Weyl tensor. ThereforeFor the magnetic part of the Weyl tensor, contracting the first slot gives by antisymmetry of the metric volume tensor; contracting the second gives by antisymmetry of the last curvature pair. Consequently both tensors are entirely spatial:These spatial projection tensor identities actually hold for any Weyl tensor; the vacuum assumption is needed subsequently to replace it by the Riemann curvature tensor.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 309 1 iii 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
All free indices below are spatial, and . Contract the vacuum Ricci tensor using :Reversing both antisymmetric curvature pairs identifies the last term as . The spatial Gauss–Codazzi equations for a spatial hypersurface then giveFor the magnetic part of the Weyl tensor, moving the normal to the first slot of the metric volume tensor introduces a minus sign:The remaining curvature indices are spatial, so the normal projection in the Gauss–Codazzi equations for a spatial hypersurface givesThe interchange makes the two spatial covariant derivative terms equal. Thus the constants, with the paper's orientation and extrinsic-curvature convention, areIn particular, the sign of the magnetic expression must include the minus from moving past the first volume-tensor index. These formulas reconstruct the spatial electric part of the Weyl tensor and magnetic part of the Weyl tensor from the induced metric and the extrinsic curvature of a spatial hypersurface.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 309 1 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Take the orientation induced by the future-directed unit normal and positive lapse function . In coordinates adapted to the 3+1 decomposition of spacetime, any component with all four indices spatial vanishes: only three distinct spatial indices are available. The shift vector therefore contributes nothing, andHere is the Levi-Civita symbol, and the last equality uses the metric determinant in a 3+1 decomposition, . The right side is precisely the spatial metric volume tensor, with component at , the appropriate permutation sign, and zero for repeated indices. HenceMore invariantly, the spatial volume form is the restriction to the hypersurface of the contraction of the spacetime volume form with .