## Wednesday, 6 March 2019

### Question on covariant derivatives

I am reading I am reading Spacetime and Geometry : An Introduction to General Relativity -- by Sean M Carroll and have arrived at chapter 3 where he introduces the covariant derivative ${\mathrm{\nabla }}_{\mu }$. He makes demands on this which are \begin{align}
\mathrm{1.\ Linearity:}\mathrm{\ }\mathrm{\nabla }\left(T+S\right)=\mathrm{\nabla }T+\mathrm{\nabla }S & \phantom {10000}(1) \\
\mathrm{2.\ Leibniz\ rule:}\mathrm{\nabla }\left(T\ \otimes \ \ S\right)=\left(\mathrm{\nabla }T\right)\ \ \otimes \ \ S+T\ \otimes \ \ \left(\mathrm{\nabla }S\right) & \phantom {10000}(2) \\
{\mathrm{3.\ Commutes\ with\ contractions:}\mathrm{\nabla }}_{\mu }\left(T^{\lambda }_{\ \ \ \lambda \rho }\right)={\left(\mathrm{\nabla }T\right)}^{\mathrm{\ \ \ }\lambda}_{\mu \ \ \lambda \rho } & \phantom {10000}(3) \\
{\mathrm{4.\ Reduces\ to\ partial\ derivative\ on\ scalars:}\mathrm{\nabla }}_{\mu }\phi ={\partial }_{\mu }\phi  & \phantom {10000}(4) \\
\end{align}1,2 and 4 seem reasonable but I cannot understand 3 and he does not seem to use it, even though he implies that he does.

The LHS of (3) seems straight forward\begin{align}
{\mathrm{\nabla }}_{\mu }\left(T^{\lambda }_{\ \ \ \lambda \rho }\right) & ={\partial }_{\mu }T^{\lambda }_{\ \ \ \lambda \rho }+{\mathrm{\Gamma }}^{\lambda }_{\mu \kappa }T^{\kappa }_{\ \ \ \lambda \rho }-{\mathrm{\Gamma }}^{\kappa }_{\mu \lambda }T^{\lambda }_{\ \ \ \kappa \rho }-{\mathrm{\Gamma }}^{\kappa }_{\mu \rho }T^{\lambda }_{\ \ \ \lambda k} & \phantom {10000}(5) \\
& ={\partial }_{\mu }T^{\lambda }_{\ \ \ \lambda \rho }-{\mathrm{\Gamma }}^{\kappa }_{\mu \rho }T^{\lambda }_{\ \ \ \lambda k} & \phantom {10000}(6) \\
\end{align}Which is very like the rule for the covariant derivative of a (0,1) tensor.

I understand that the $\mathrm{\nabla }T$ in (1) and (2) means ${\mathrm{\nabla }}_{\sigma}T$ where $T$ is some tensor. So the RHS of (3) appears to be ${\left({\mathrm{\nabla }}_{\sigma}T\right)}^{\mathrm{\ \ \ }\lambda}_{\mu \ \ \lambda \rho }$ which leaves too many indices on the RHS. Otherwise the RHS is some kind of derivative with one contra- and three co-variant indices. What is that?

Help!
Posted on Physics Forums at https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/question-on-covariant-derivatives.967509/