A pedagogical review of gravity as a gauge theory

Abstract

After reviewing how Albert Einstein's general relativity (GR) can be viewed as a gauge theory of the Poincar\'e algebra, we show how \'Elie Cartan's geometric formulation of Newtonian gravity (Newton-Cartan gravity) can be viewed as a gauge theory of the Bargmann algebra following the construction of [R. Andringa, E. Bergshoeff, S. Panda, and M. de Roo, "Newtonian Gravity and the Bargmann Algebra," Class. Quant. Grav. 28 (2011) 105011, arXiv:1011.1145 [hep-th]]. In doing so, we will touch on the following auxiliary topics: the extension of Yang-Mills gauge theory to a more generic formalism of gauge theory, the fiber bundle picture of gauge theory along with the soldering procedure necessary to complete the gravity as a gauge theory picture, the vielbein formalism of GR, Lie algebra procedures such as central extensions and \.In\"on\"u-Wigner contractions, and the hallmarks of Newtonian gravity which differentiate it from GR. The objective of the present work is to pedagogically fill in the gaps between the above citation and an undergraduate physics and mathematics education. Working knowledge of GR and some familiarity with classical field theory and Lie algebras is assumed.