Comparison of the DeWitt metric in general relativity with the fourth-rank constitutive tensors in electrodynamics and in elasticity theory

Abstract

We perform a short comparison between the local and linear constitutive tensor $\chi^{\lambda\nu\sigma\kappa}$ in four-dimensional electrodynamics (Sec.2), the elasticity tensor $c^{ijkl}$ in three-dimensional elasticity theory (Sec.3), and the DeWitt metric $G^{abcd}$ in general relativity, with ${a,b,\dots=1,2,3}$ (Sec.4). We find that the DeWitt metric has only six independent components.