Decomposition of the connection in affine models of gravity: Can the connection tell us something about the metric?

Abstract

In physics geometrical connections are the mean to create models with local symmetries (gauge connections), as well as general diffeomorphisms invariance (affine connections). Here we study the irreducible tensor decomposition of connections on the tangent bundle of an affine manifold as used in the polynomial affine model of gravity. This connection is the most general linear connection, which allows us to build metric independent, diffeomorphism invariant models. This set up includes parts of the connection that are associated with conformal and projective transformations.