Construction of energy-momentum tensor of gravitation

Abstract

We construct the gravitational energy-momentum tensor in general relativity through the Noether theorem. In particular, we explicitly demonstrate that the constructed quantity can vary as a tensor under the general coordinate transformation. Furthermore, we verify that the energy-momentum conservation is satisfied because one of the two indices of the energy-momentum tensor should be in the local Lorentz frame. It is also shown that the gravitational energy and the matter one cancel out in certain space-times.

13 pages, no figure, version accepted for publication in International Journal of Geometric Methods in Modern Physics