A Noncommutative Extension of Gravity

Abstract

The commutative algebra of functions on a manifold is extended to a noncommutative algebra by considering its tensor product with the algebra of nxn complex matrices. Noncommutative geometry is used to formulate an extension of the Einstein-Hilbert action. The result is shown to be equivalent to the usual Kaluza-Klein theory with the manifold SUn as an internal space, in a truncated approximation.