Deriving Schwarzschild and Kerr from the Einstein Equivalence Principle

Abstract

This manuscript demonstrates that the Schwarzschild and Kerr metrics can be derived fundamentally from the Einstein Equivalence Principle (EEP) without explicit reliance on the Einstein field equations. We show that the EEP implies a gravitational stretching of length in the direction of acceleration, a spatial counterpart to time dilation. In the static case, this effect yields the constraint $g_{00}{g}_{11}=-1$, from which the Schwarzschild solution is recovered by taking the Newtonian limit. For the stationary case, we employ oblate spheroidal coordinates and construct a physically motivated tetrad to implement the EP, introducing gravity through three unknown functions. By applying the EEP-induced constraints and showing that the principle requires the preservation of the spacetime volume determinant ($g=g_0$), the system is reduced to a single unknown function that yields the Kerr metric. These results suggest that classical tests of General Relativity are, at their core, fundamental validations of the EEP. We further argue that the EEP leads naturally to Unimodular Gravity, implying that the existence of the cosmological constant is a direct consequence of this foundational postulate.

Initially rejected by arXiv for not enough material; even after receiving an Honorable Mention from the 2026 Gravity Research Foundation and publication in IJMPD, gr-qc classification was declined and the paper was assigned to physics.gen-ph

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