Compatibility of Sigma--Model Matter with the Newtonian Limit of General Relativity
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This work analyzes the classical compatibility between nonlinear sigma–model matter and the Newtonian limit of general relativity. Specifically, it studies Einstein’s equations coupled to an ( S^3 )-valued sigma–model field, focusing on whether the additional internal geometric structure introduced by such fields obstructs the emergence of Newtonian gravity and Newtonian mechanics. Rather than rederiving the Newtonian limit in full generality, the paper adopts a conditional and structural approach: on spacetime regions admitting an internally defined time function constructed from the sigma–model field, the weak–field, quasi–static limit is shown to reproduce the standard Poisson equation for the Newtonian potential, with a positive effective mass density derived from the sigma–model stress–energy tensor. The analysis is entirely classical and geometric. Test–body motion is shown to reduce to Newton’s equation via the geodesic principle, and singular sigma–model configurations are treated using distributional geometry, yielding measure–valued Newtonian mass sources associated with topological defects. The resulting limit naturally connects with Newton–Cartan geometry, where absolute time emerges from the internal field structure and the affine connection is inherited from the weak–field Levi–Civita connection. Overall, the work establishes that sigma–model matter and its defects do not obstruct the Newtonian regime of general relativity, but instead fit coherently within the classical hierarchy of geometric gravity theories.
Author: Brett Farkas
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7116334534
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