## Thursday, 5 December 2019

### Exercise 3.08 Vital statistics of a 3-sphere

Question
The metric for the 3-sphere in coordinates $x^\mu=$  $\left(\psi,\theta,\phi\right)$ is $${ds}^2={d\psi}^2+\sin^2{\psi}\left({d\theta}^2+\sin^2{\theta}{d\phi}^2\right)$$(a) Calculate the Christoffel connection coefficients. Use whatever method you like, but it is good practice to get the connection coefficients by varying the integral (3.49)

(b) Calculate the Riemann tensor $R_{\ \ \ \sigma\mu\nu}^\rho$ , Ricci tensor $R_{\mu\nu}$ and Ricci scalar $R$.

(c) Show that (3.191) is obeyed by this metric, confirming that the 3-sphere is a maximally symmetric space (as you might expect.) 3.191 was$$R_{\rho\sigma\mu\nu}=\frac{R}{n\left(n-1\right)}\left(g_{\rho\mu}g_{\sigma\nu}-g_{\rho\nu}g_{\sigma\mu}\right)$$Calculating the Christoffel coefficients was easy because I could use the code I had written before. I did not take the advice "get good practice by varying the integral"! I forgot to use the result of exercise 3.3! Grrr. The Riemann tensor was gruelling. It has 81 components but in this case there are really only three which are independent and each of them generate only three more by index symmetries (as shown in the picture). However, every one of the 81 needs checking. We also notice that each component is ± a metric component and wonder if there is some relationship like the relation between these components similar to exercise 3.3. Perhaps a future challenge! The Ricci bits are almost trivial. For (c) I was able to write a simple bit of code to compare all 81 equations. It did the job.

Note:
A 1-sphere is a circle - the set of points in $\mathbf{R}^2$ at an equal distance from the origin.
A 2-sphere is the surface of a sphere - the set of points in $\mathbf{R}^3$ at an equal distance from the origin.
A 3-sphere is the set of points in $\mathbf{R}^4$ at an equal distance from the origin.

(a) Christoffel connection coefficients
\begin{align}
\Gamma_{\theta\theta}^\psi&=-\sin{\psi}\cos{\psi}&\phantom {10000}(5)\nonumber\\
\Gamma_{\phi\phi}^\psi&=-\sin{\psi}\cos{\psi}\sin^2{\theta}&\phantom {10000}(6)\nonumber\\
\Gamma_{\psi\theta}^\theta=\Gamma_{\theta\psi}^\theta&=\cot{\psi}&\phantom {10000}(7)\nonumber\\
\Gamma_{\phi\phi}^\theta&=-\sin{\theta}\cos{\theta}&\phantom {10000}(8)\nonumber\\
\Gamma_{\psi\phi}^\phi=\Gamma_{\phi\psi}^\phi&=\cot{\psi}&\phantom {10000}(9)\nonumber\\
\Gamma_{\theta\phi}^\phi=\Gamma_{\phi\theta}^\phi&=\cot{\theta}&\phantom {10000}(10)\nonumber
\end{align}(b) Riemann tensor components are
\begin{align}
R_{\ \ \ \theta\psi\theta}^\psi&=\sin^2{\psi}&\phantom {10000}(13)\nonumber\\
R_{\ \ \ \theta\theta\psi}^\psi&=-\sin^2{\psi}&\phantom {10000}(14)\nonumber\\
{R}_{\ \ \ {\phi\psi\phi}}^{\psi}&=\sin^2{\psi}\sin^2{\theta}&\phantom {10000}(15)\nonumber\\
R_{\ \ \ \phi\phi\psi}^\psi&=-\sin^2{\psi}\sin^2{\theta}&\phantom {10000}(16)\nonumber\\
R_{\ \ \ \psi\psi\theta}^\theta&=-1&\phantom {10000}(17)\nonumber\\
R_{\ \ \ \psi\theta\psi}^\theta&=1&\phantom {10000}(18)\nonumber\\
R_{\ \ \ \phi\theta\phi}^\theta&=\sin^2{\psi}\sin^2{\theta}&\phantom {10000}(19)\nonumber\\
R_{\ \ \ \phi\phi\theta}^\theta&=-\sin^2{\psi}\sin^2{\theta}&\phantom {10000}(20)\nonumber\\
R_{\ \ \ \psi\psi\phi}^\phi&=-1&\phantom {10000}(21)\nonumber\\
R_{\ \ \ \psi\phi\psi}^\phi&=1&\phantom {10000}(22)\nonumber\\
R_{\ \ \ \theta\theta\phi}^\phi&=-\sin^2{\psi}&\phantom {10000}(23)\nonumber\\
R_{\ \ \ \theta\phi\theta}^\phi&=\sin^2{\psi}&\phantom {10000}(24)\nonumber
\end{align}The Ricci tensor is twice the metric!
\begin{align}
R_{\mu\nu}=2g_{\mu\nu}&\phantom {10000}(35)\nonumber
\end{align}The Ricci scalar is 6

(c) was solved by VBA
Complete answer with more links in Ex 3.08 Vital statistics of a 3-sphere.pdf