Cartan's soldered spaces and conservation laws in physics

Abstract

In this paper, we will introduce a generalized soldering p-forms geometry, which can be the right framework to describe many new approaches and concepts in modern physics. Here we will treat some aspects of the theory of local cohomology in fields theory or more precisely the theory of soldering-form conservation laws in physics. We provide some illustrative applications, primarily taken from the Einstein equations of general theory of relativity and Yang–Mills theory. This theory can be considered to be a generalization of Noether's theory of conserved current to differential forms of any degree. An essential result of this, is that the conservation of the energy–momentum in general relativity, is linked to the fact that the vacuum field equations are equivalent to the integrability conditions of a first-order system of differential equations. We also apply the idea of the soldered space and the integrability conditions to the case of Yang–Mills theory. The mathematical framework, where these intuitive considerations would fit naturally, can be used to describe also the dynamics of changing manifolds.