Work

The Lanczos potential in the Plebanski paradigm of gravity

Year: 2026

Type: preprint

Abstract: We present a new Plebanski formulation of General Relativity. The key difference is that we work with a gauge vector field derived from the Lanczos potential of the Weyl tensor. We show that, on shell, the gauge vector field encodes all nontrivial gravitational degrees of freedom and, in a suitable Lorentz gauge, Bianchi identities ensure that this gauge vector field satisfies a source-free wave equation for Ricci-flat spacetimes. This description suggests new ways of interpreting the true geometrical degrees of freedom with applications in both classical and quantum gravity.

Source: arXiv (Cornell University)

DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2609.29434

Authors: Espín, Daniel, Cano, Alejandro Jiménez, Olmedo, Javier, Manso, António Torres

Institutions: Universidad de Granada, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Jožef Stefan Institute

Language: English

Topic: Relativity and Gravitational Theory

Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

OpenAlex ID: W7214294500

Cites: 10

Cited by:

Related to: 10