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A stress-energy superpotential is an antisymmetric tensor $B^{\rho \mu \nu }=-B^{\mu \rho \nu }$ whose divergence supplies a stress-energy tensor improvement. In the Maxwell field, the potential-dependent expression $B^{\rho \mu }{}_{\nu }=F^{\mu \rho }{A}_{\nu }$ produces the difference between canonical and gauge-invariant stress-energy tensors on shell. Antisymmetry ensures identically conserved improvement terms.

Adding ${\partial }_{\rho }{B}^{\rho \mu \nu }$ with $B^{\rho \mu \nu }=-B^{\mu \rho \nu }$ to a stress-energy tensor preserves its divergence identically, since commuting partial derivatives annihilates the antisymmetric pair. The total four-momentum changes only by a spatial boundary term. Improvements can make local densities symmetric or gauge-invariant; equality of integrated charges requires the chosen boundary conditions. Equation-of-motion terms can also relate representatives on shell.

For action $S=\int \sqrt{-g}[-\frac{1}{2}(\nabla \Phi {)}^2-\xi R{\Phi }^2]d^{4}x$, metric variation defines $\delta S=\frac{1}{2}\int \sqrt{-g}{T}^{ab}\delta g_{ab}{d}^{4}x$ and gives the displayed tensor. The contracted Bianchi identity and the scalar derivative commutator yield ${\nabla }^a{T}_{ab}=(\square \Phi -2\xi R\Phi ){\nabla }_b\Phi$, so the stress-energy tensor is conserved on the field equation.

In a region with vanishing stress-energy tensor, the Einstein field equations reduce to $R_{\mu \nu }=0$ when the cosmological constant vanishes.

A vacuum spacetime has vanishing matter stress-energy tensor. In $D>2$ dimensions, tracing the Vacuum Einstein equations gives $R=2D\Lambda /(D-2)$ and hence $R_{ab}=2\Lambda g_{ab}/(D-2)$; in four dimensions this reduces to $R_{ab}=\Lambda g_{ab}$. With zero cosmological constant it is Ricci flat, although its full Riemann curvature tensor can be nonzero: a vacuum Kerr black hole and vacuum gravitational waves illustrate that distinction.