Diffeomorphism Symmetry in the Lagrangian Formulation of Gravity

Abstract

Starting from a knowledge of certain identities in the Lagrangian description, the diffeomorphism transformations of metric and connection are obtained for both the second order (metric) and the first order (Palatini) formulations of gravity. The transformation laws of the connection and the metric are derived independently in the Palatini formulation in contrast to the metric formulation where the gauge variation of the connection is deduced from the gauge variation of the metric.