On the teleparallel limit of Poincare gauge theory

Abstract

We will address the question of the consistency of teleparallel theories in presence of spinning matter which has been a controversial subject of discussion over the last twenty years. We argue that the origin of the problem is not simply the symmetry or asymmetry of the stress-energy tensor of the matter fields, which has been recently analyzed by several authors, but arises at a more fundamental level, namely from the invariance of the field equatins under a frame change, a problem that has been discussed long time ago by Kopczynski in the framework of the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity. More importantly, we show that the problem is not only confined to the purely teleparallel theory but arises actually in every Poincare gauge theory that admits a teleparallel geometry in the absence of spinning sources, i.e. in its classical limit.