Contracting the Ricci tensor gives the Ricci scalar
Hence the time-time component of the Einstein tensor is . A comoving perfect fluid in general relativity has , so the time-time Einstein field equations give the flat Friedmann equation
Contracting the Riemann curvature tensor gives the nonzero components of the Ricci tensor:
The Ricci scalar is the contraction with the inverse metric. Therefore
It is independent of both coordinates, so the hyperbolic plane has constant negative scalar curvature.
Scalar curvature under conformal rescaling Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-07
In dimension , the conformal rescaling of a Riemannian metric changes the Ricci scalar by the displayed formula. In two dimensions the gradient-square term vanishes; for a flat base metric, .
For a spatial initial slice with vanishing extrinsic curvature, the vacuum momentum constraint is automatic and the Hamiltonian constraint requires zero Ricci scalar. In three spatial dimensions, the indicated conformally flat metric has , with a nonzero conformal factor. Thus a harmonic function supplies the data on its domain. A positive example is on a punctured or exterior region. There is no nonconstant globally smooth example on all of Euclidean three-space tending to one at infinity, by the maximum principle for harmonic functions. Time symmetry of an initial slice does not imply that its entire evolved spacetime is static.