Differential Forms on Riemannian (Lorentzian) and Riemann-Cartan Structures and Some Applications to Physics

Waldyr A. Rodrigues Jr

Published 2007-12-19, updated 2008-12-04Version 6

In this paper after recalling some essential tools concerning the theory of differential forms in the Cartan, Hodge and Clifford bundles over a Riemannian or Riemann-Cartan space or a Lorentzian or Riemann-Cartan spacetime we solve with details several exercises involving different grades of difficult. One of the problems is to show that a recent formula appearing in the literature for the exterior covariant derivative of the Hodge dual of the torsion 2-forms is simply wrong. We believe that the paper will be useful for students (and eventually for some experts) on applications of differential geometry on physical problems. A detailed account of the issues discussed in the paper appears in the table of contents.