Torsion or not torsion, that is the question

Abstract

A hypothesis of general relativity is that spacetime torsion vanishes identically. This assumption has no empirical support; in fact, a nonvanishing torsion is compatible with all the experimental tests of general relativity. The first part of this essay specifies the framework that is suitable to test the vanishing-torsion hypothesis, and an interesting relation with the gravitational degrees of freedom is suggested. In the second part, some original empirical tests are proposed based on the observation that torsion induces new interactions between different spin-polarized particles.

Awarded an honorable mention at the 2016 Gravity Research Foundation essay competition

References in corpus (4)

• Constraints on Torsion from Lorentz Violation
• New CP-violation and preferred-frame tests with polarized electrons
• Torsion Cosmology and the Accelerating Universe
• On Poincaré gauge theory of gravity, its equations of motion, and Gravity Probe B

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Unimodular Einstein--Cartan gravity: Dynamics and conservation laws
• Parity-Even and Time-Reversal-Odd Neutron Optical Potential in Spinning Matter Induced by Gravitational Torsion
• Signature of Einstein-Cartan theory
• Symmetries and conserved quantities with arbitrary torsion: A generalization of Killing's theorem
• Semiclassical Gravity Beyond General Relativity: Insights from Torsion