Tensors - Leonard Susskind

General Relativity Lectures 3-5 2008 - notes

ramo (hanramo@hotmail.com)
AP (Calculus BC, Statistics, Physics C, Microeconomics) Teacher

December 4, 2014

Contravariant (x and y exist in different reference frames)

~ ).
Contravariant tensors1 of Order 1 can be thought of as vectors in N-dimensional space (e.g. V = V
Greek indices generally (e.g. , , ) refer to 4-dimensional vectors/tensors. Latin indices (e.g. m, n, r)
generally refer to 3-dimensional vectors/tensors but this is only a convention.

dy m =

y m n
dx
xn

so also ...

m
~n
~ m = y V
V
(y)
xn (x)

~ B
~ =T
A

V m(y) =

xm n
dy
y n
y m n
V (x)
xn

Ar B s = T rs

~W
~ ) =  V W
(V

T mn(y) =

dxm =

[vector cross product]

y m y n rs
T (x)
xr xs

S = T = tr(T )

[Trace]2

S = T = T

[contraction]

with

odds and ends from other sources

stuff is a grind to type in - if you find errors please let me know
currently with Mathematics and Science Department, Beijing Number 2 High School, Beijing
1 It isnt actually the tensors themselves which are contravariant or covariant. It is their components. Upper (superscripted) indices refer to contravariant components and lower (sub-scripted) indices refer to co-variant components and some
tensors have both kinds. But if a tensor only has 1 index and it is represented with a superscript then it is often referred to
as being contravariant and akin to a vector.
This

Co-variant
Co-variant tensors3 of Order 1 are sometimes thought of as one-forms in N-dimensional space (e.g.
V = V ) and should not be thought of as vectors.

xn
=
[co-varaint Gradient of a scalar field:
m
y
xn y m
xn (x)
y m (y)
(x)

Vm(y) =
V
so
also
...
V
=
V
n
y m n
xn m
xr xs
T (x)
Tmn(y) =
y m y n rs
~n
~ n = V + n V
~ r = Tm
m V
rm
n
xm
V = V + V = T
Vn
rnm Vr = Tnm
xm
V = V V = T

m Vn =

p Tmn =

a
bc

[Co-variant (Tensor) Gradient of a contravariant Tensor (vector)]

[shorthand form, 4D version]

[Covariant (Tensor) Gradient of a covariant Tensor (one-form)]

[shorthand form, 4D version]

Tmn
rpm Trn + rpn Tmr
xp



1 ad gcd
gdb
gbc
= g
+

2
xb
xc
xd
1
= g [ g + g g ]
2

[2-form]

[shorthand, 4-vector form]

In multilinear algebra and tensor analysis, covariance and contravariance describe how the quantitative
description of certain geometric or physical entities changes with a change of basis. In physics, a basis
is sometimes thought of as a set of reference axes. A change of scale on the reference axes corresponds
to a change of units in the problem. For instance, in changing scale from meters to centimeters (that is,
dividing the scale of the reference axes by 100), the components of a measured velocity vector will multiply
by 100. Vectors exhibit this behavior of changing scale inversely to changes in scale to the reference axes:
they are contravariant. As a result, vectors often have units of distance or distance times some other
unit (like the velocity). In contrast, dual vectors (also called covectors) typically have units the inverse
of distance or the inverse of distance times some other unit. An example of a dual vector is the gradient,
which has units of a spatial derivative, or distance1 . The components of dual vectors change in the same
way as changes to scale of the reference axes: they are covariant.4

3 A similar caveat (to the one for contravariant tensors applies here) but co-variant components are denoted either via
sub scripted indices or via super-scripted indices appearing in a denominator. (Co is Low is a useful mnemonic referring
to the indices although upstairs and downstairs are often used to describe contra- and covariant, respectively).
4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covariance and contravariance of vectors accessed 11/30/2014 5:21 PM GMT+8

metric tensor rules

Among other things, the metric tensor is used for raising and lowering indices.

the meteric tensor gmn = gnm

gmn = mn

[n.b.

mn 6= mn

except in Cartesian coordinates]

(gmn )1 = g mn
g mr grn = mn
ms = gns mn
so

mn

=g

ns

g =
~ m gmn = V
~n
V
T

mn

gns =

m
s

ms = g mn ns

ns = gmn ms

[in 4D]
[index lowering]

T ms

T mn gns gmn = Trs

ds(x)

2

= gmn (x) dxm dxn

xm xn r s
= gmn (x)
dy dy
y r y s
= grs (y) dy r dy s

2
= ds(y)
[the reason tensors are used]

~ W
~ = g V W = V W = V W = g V W
V
 2
~ 
~ V
~ = g V V = V V
[this is exactly what a metric tensor is supposed to do]
V = V
g ir gri = rr = ii = 3
g

g = = 2

[trace 3D]

[spacetime 4D trace]