In
mathematics and
physics, the Christoffel symbols are an array of numbers describing a
metric connection.[1] The metric connection is a specialization of the
affine connection to
surfaces or other
manifolds endowed with a
metric, allowing distances to be measured on that surface. In
differential geometry, an affine connection can be defined without reference to a metric, and many additional concepts follow:
parallel transport,
covariant derivatives,
geodesics, etc. also do not require the concept of a metric.[2][3] However, when a metric is available, these concepts can be directly tied to the "shape" of the manifold itself; that shape is determined by how the
tangent space is attached to the
cotangent space by the
metric tensor.[4] Abstractly, one would say that the manifold has an associated (
orthonormal)
frame bundle, with each "
frame" being a possible choice of a
coordinate frame. An invariant metric implies that the
structure group of the frame bundle is the
orthogonal groupO(p, q). As a result, such a manifold is necessarily a (
pseudo-)
Riemannian manifold.[5][6] The Christoffel symbols provide a concrete representation of the connection of (pseudo-)
Riemannian geometry in terms of coordinates on the manifold. Additional concepts, such as parallel transport, geodesics, etc. can then be expressed in terms of Christoffel symbols.
At each point of the underlying n-dimensional manifold, for any local coordinate system around that point, the Christoffel symbols are denoted Γijk for i, j, k = 1, 2, ..., n. Each entry of this n × n × narray is a
real number. Under linearcoordinate transformations on the manifold, the Christoffel symbols transform like the components of a
tensor, but under general coordinate transformations (
diffeomorphisms) they do not. Most of the algebraic properties of the Christoffel symbols follow from their relationship to the affine connection; only a few follow from the fact that the
structure group is the orthogonal group O(m, n) (or the
Lorentz groupO(3, 1) for general relativity).
Christoffel symbols are used for performing practical calculations. For example, the
Riemann curvature tensor can be expressed entirely in terms of the Christoffel symbols and their first
partial derivatives. In
general relativity, the connection plays the role of the
gravitational force field with the corresponding
gravitational potential being the metric tensor. When the coordinate system and the metric tensor share some symmetry, many of the Γijk are
zero.
Einstein summation convention is used in this article, with vectors indicated by bold font. The connection coefficients of the
Levi-Civita connection (or pseudo-Riemannian connection) expressed in a coordinate basis are called Christoffel symbols.
Given a
manifold, an
atlas consists of a collection of charts for each
open cover. Such charts allow the standard
vector basis on to be
pulled back to a vector basis on the tangent space of . This is done as follows. Given some arbitrary real function , the chart allows a
gradient to be defined:
This gradient is commonly called a
pullback because it "pulls back" the gradient on to a gradient on . The pullback is independent of the chart . In this way, the standard vector basis on pulls back to a standard ("coordinate") vector basis on . This is called the "coordinate basis", because it explicitly depends on the coordinates on . It is sometimes called the "local basis".
This definition allows a common
abuse of notation. The were defined to be in one-to-one correspondence with the basis vectors on . The notation serves as a reminder that the basis vectors on the tangent space came from a gradient construction. Despite this, it is common to "forget" this construction, and just write (or rather, define) vectors on such that . The full range of commonly used notation includes the use of arrows and boldface to denote vectors:
where is used as a reminder that these are defined to be equivalent notation for the same concept. The choice of notation is according to style and taste, and varies from text to text.
The coordinate basis provides a vector basis for
vector fields on . Commonly used notation for vector fields on include
The upper-case , without the vector-arrow, is particularly popular for
index-free notation, because it both minimizes clutter and reminds that results are independent of the chosen basis, and, in this case, independent of the atlas.
The same abuse of notation is used to
push forwardone-forms from to . This is done by writing or or . The one-form is then . This is soldered to the basis vectors as . Note the careful use of upper and lower indexes, to distinguish contravarient and covariant vectors.
The pullback induces (defines) a
metric tensor on . Several styles of notation are commonly used:
where both the centerdot and the angle-bracket denote the
scalar product. The last form uses the
tensor, which is understood to be the "flat-space" metric tensor. For
Riemannian manifolds, it is the
Kronecker delta. For
pseudo-Riemannian manifolds, it is the diagonal matrix having signature . The notation serves as a reminder that pullback really is a linear transform, given as the gradient, above. The index letters live in while the index letters live in the tangent manifold.
Some texts write for , so that the metric tensor takes the particularly beguiling form . This is commonly done so that the symbol can be used unambiguously for the
vierbein.
Definition in Euclidean space
In
Euclidean space, the general definition given below for the Christoffel symbols of the second kind can be proven to be equivalent to:
Christoffel symbols of the first kind can then be found via
index lowering:
Rearranging, we see that (assuming the partial derivative belongs to the tangent space, which cannot occur on a non-Euclidean
curved space):
In words, the arrays represented by the Christoffel symbols track how the basis changes from point to point. If the derivative does not lie on the tangent space, the right expression is the projection of the derivative over the tangent space (see
covariant derivative below). Symbols of the second kind decompose the change with respect to the basis, while symbols of the first kind decompose it with respect to the dual basis. In this form, it is easy to see the symmetry of the lower or last two indices:
and
from the definition of and the fact that partial derivatives commute (as long as the manifold and coordinate system
are well behaved).
The same numerical values for Christoffel symbols of the second kind also relate to derivatives of the dual basis, as seen in the expression:
which we can rearrange as:
General definition
The Christoffel symbols come in two forms: the first kind, and the second kind. The definition of the second kind is more basic, and thus is presented first.
Christoffel symbols of the second kind (symmetric definition)
The Christoffel symbols of the second kind are the connection coefficients—in a coordinate basis—of the
Levi-Civita connection.
In other words, the Christoffel symbols of the second kind[8][9]Γkij (sometimes Γk ij or {k ij})[7][8] are defined as the unique coefficients such that
where ∇i is the
Levi-Civita connection on M taken in the coordinate direction ei (i.e., ∇i ≡ ∇ei) and where ei = ∂i is a local coordinate (
holonomic)
basis. Since this connection has zero
torsion, and holonomic vector fields commute (i.e. ) we have
Hence in this basis the connection coefficients are symmetric:[8]
For this reason, a torsion-free connection is often called symmetric.
As a shorthand notation, the
nabla symbol and the partial derivative symbols are frequently dropped, and instead a
semicolon and a
comma are used to set off the index that is being used for the derivative. Thus, the above is sometimes written as
Using that the symbols are symmetric in the lower two indices, one can solve explicitly for the Christoffel symbols as a function of the metric tensor by permuting the indices and resumming:[10]
The Christoffel symbols are most typically defined in a coordinate basis, which is the convention followed here. In other words, the name Christoffel symbols is reserved only for coordinate (i.e.,
holonomic) frames. However, the connection coefficients can also be defined in an arbitrary (i.e., nonholonomic) basis of tangent vectors ui by
Explicitly, in terms of the metric tensor, this is[9]
where uk are the basis
vectors and [ , ] is the
Lie bracket. The standard unit vectors in
spherical and cylindrical coordinates furnish an example of a basis with non-vanishing commutation coefficients. The difference between the connection in such a frame, and the Levi-Civita connection is known as the
contorsion tensor.
When we choose the basis Xi ≡ ui orthonormal: gab ≡ ηab = ⟨Xa, Xb⟩ then gmk,l ≡ ηmk,l = 0. This implies that
and the connection coefficients become antisymmetric in the first two indices:
where
In this case, the connection coefficients ωabc are called the Ricci rotation coefficients.[14][15]
Equivalently, one can define Ricci rotation coefficients as follows:[9]
where ui is an orthonormal nonholonomic basis and uk = ηklul its co-basis.
Transformation law under change of variable
Under a change of variable from to , Christoffel symbols transform as
where the overline denotes the Christoffel symbols in the coordinate system. The Christoffel symbol does not transform as a tensor, but rather as an object in the
jet bundle. More precisely, the Christoffel symbols can be considered as functions on the jet bundle of the frame bundle of M, independent of any local coordinate system. Choosing a local coordinate system determines a local section of this bundle, which can then be used to pull back the Christoffel symbols to functions on M, though of course these functions then depend on the choice of local coordinate system.
For each point, there exist coordinate systems in which the Christoffel symbols vanish at the point.[16] These are called (geodesic)
normal coordinates, and are often used in
Riemannian geometry.
There are some interesting properties which can be derived directly from the transformation law.
For linear transformation, the inhomogeneous part of the transformation (second term on the right-hand side) vanishes identically and then behaves like a tensor.
If we have two fields of connections, say and , then their difference is a tensor since the inhomogeneous terms cancel each other. The inhomogeneous terms depend only on how the coordinates are changed, but are independent of Christoffel symbol itself.
If the Christoffel symbol is unsymmetric about its lower indices in one coordinate system i.e., , then they remain unsymmetric under any change of coordinates. A corollary to this property is that it is impossible to find a coordinate system in which all elements of Christoffel symbol are zero at a point, unless lower indices are symmetric. This property was pointed out by
Albert Einstein[17] and
Erwin Schrödinger[18] independently.
Relationship to parallel transport and derivation of Christoffel symbols in Riemannian space
If a vector is transported parallel on a curve parametrized by some parameter on a
Riemannian manifold, the rate of change of the components of the vector is given by
Now just by using the condition that the scalar product formed by two arbitrary vectors and is unchanged is enough to derive the Christoffel symbols. The condition is
which by the product rule expands to
Applying the parallel transport rule for the two arbitrary vectors and relabelling dummy indices and collecting the coefficients of (arbitrary), we obtain
This is same as the equation obtained by requiring the covariant derivative of the metric tensor to vanish in the General definition section. The derivation from here is simple. By cyclically permuting the indices in above equation, we can obtain two more equations and then linearly combining these three equations, we can express in terms of metric tensor.
Relationship to index-free notation
Let X and Y be
vector fields with components Xi and Yk. Then the kth component of the covariant derivative of Y with respect to X is given by
Here, the
Einstein notation is used, so repeated indices indicate summation over indices and contraction with the metric tensor serves to raise and lower indices:
Keep in mind that gik ≠ gik and that gik = δ ik, the
Kronecker delta. The convention is that the metric tensor is the one with the lower indices; the correct way to obtain gik from gik is to solve the linear equations gijgjk = δ ik.
The statement that the connection is
torsion-free, namely that
is equivalent to the statement that—in a coordinate basis—the Christoffel symbol is symmetric in the lower two indices:
The index-less transformation properties of a tensor are given by
pullbacks for covariant indices, and
pushforwards for contravariant indices. The article on
covariant derivatives provides additional discussion of the correspondence between index-free notation and indexed notation.
By corollary, divergence of a vector can be obtained as
The covariant derivative of a
covector field ωm is
The symmetry of the Christoffel symbol now implies
for any scalar field, but in general the covariant derivatives of higher order tensor fields do not commute (see
curvature tensor).
The covariant derivative of a type (2, 0)tensor field Aik is
that is,
If the tensor field is
mixed then its covariant derivative is
and if the tensor field is of type (0, 2) then its covariant derivative is
Contravariant derivatives of tensors
To find the contravariant derivative of a vector field, we must first transform it into a covariant derivative using the metric tensor
Applications
In general relativity
The Christoffel symbols find frequent use in Einstein's theory of
general relativity, where
spacetime is represented by a curved 4-dimensional
Lorentz manifold with a
Levi-Civita connection. The
Einstein field equations—which determine the geometry of spacetime in the presence of matter—contain the
Ricci tensor, and so calculating the Christoffel symbols is essential. Once the geometry is determined, the paths of particles and light beams are calculated by solving the
geodesic equations in which the Christoffel symbols explicitly appear.
In classical (non-relativistic) mechanics
Let be the generalized coordinates and be the generalized velocities, then the kinetic energy for a unit mass is given by , where is the
metric tensor. If , the potential function, exists then the contravariant components of the generalized force per unit mass are . The metric (here in a purely spatial domain) can be obtained from the line element . Substituting the Lagrangian into the
Euler-Lagrange equation, we get[19]
Now multiplying by , we get
When Cartesian coordinates can be adopted (as in inertial frames of reference), we have an Euclidean metrics, the Christoffel symbol vanishes, and the equation reduces to
Newton's second law of motion. In curvilinear coordinates[20] (forcedly in non-inertial frames, where the metrics is non-Euclidean and not flat), fictitious forces like the
Centrifugal force and
Coriolis force originate from the Christoffel symbols, so from the purely spatial curvilinear coordinates.
Given a
spherical coordinate system, which describes points on the Earth surface (approximated as an ideal sphere).
For a point x, R is the distance to the Earth core (usually approximately the
Earth radius). θ and φ are the
latitude and
longitude. Positive θ is the northern hemisphere. To simplify the derivatives, the angles are given in
radians (where d sin(x)/dx = cos(x), the degree values introduce an additional factor of 360 / 2 pi).
At any location, the tangent directions are (up), (north) and (east) - you can also use indices 1,2,3.
The related
metric tensor has only diagonal elements (the squared vector lengths). This is an advantage of the coordinate system and not generally true.
Now the necessary quantities can be calculated. Examples:
The resulting Christoffel symbols of the second kind then are (organized by the "derivative" index i in a matrix):
These values show how the tangent directions (columns: , , ) change, seen from an outside perspective (e.g. from space), but given in the tangent directions of the actual location (rows: R, θ, φ).
As an example, take the nonzero derivatives by θ in , which corresponds to a movement towards north (positive dθ):
The new north direction changes by -R dθ in the up (R) direction. So the north direction will rotate downwards towards the center of the Earth.
Similarly, the up direction will be adjusted towards the north. The different lengths of and lead to a factor of 1/R .
Moving north, the east tangent vector changes its length (-tan(θ) on the diagonal), it will shrink (-tan(θ) dθ < 0) on the northern hemisphere, and increase (-tan(θ) dθ > 0) on the southern hemisphere.[21]
These effects are maybe not apparent during the movement, because they are the adjustments that keep the measurements in the coordinates R, θ, φ. Nevertheless, it can affect distances, physics equations, etc. So if e.g. you need the exact change of a
magnetic field pointing approximately "south", it can be necessary to also
correct your measurement by the change of the north direction using the Christoffel symbols to get the "true" (
tensor) value.
The Christoffel symbols of the first kind show the same change using metric-corrected coordinates, e.g. for derivative by φ:
^This is assuming that the connection is symmetric (e.g., the Levi-Civita connection). If the connection has
torsion, then only the symmetric part of the Christoffel symbol can be made to vanish.
Abraham, Ralph; Marsden, Jerrold E. (1978), Foundations of Mechanics, London: Benjamin/Cummings Publishing, pp. See chapter 2, paragraph 2.7.1,
ISBN0-8053-0102-X
Adler, Ronald; Bazin, Maurice;
Schiffer, Menahem (1965), Introduction to General Relativity (First ed.), McGraw-Hill Book Company
Misner, Charles W.; Thorne, Kip S.; Wheeler, John Archibald (1970), Gravitation, New York: W.H. Freeman, pp. See chapter 8, paragraph 8.5,
ISBN0-7167-0344-0
Ludvigsen, Malcolm (1999), General Relativity: A Geometrical Approach, Cambridge University Press,
ISBN0-521-63019-3