Self-dual two-forms and divergence-free vector fields

Abstract

Beginning with the self-dual two-forms approach to the Einstein equations, we show how, by choosing basis spinors which are proportional to solutions of the Dirac equation, we may rewrite the vacuum Einstein equations in terms of a set of divergence-free vector fields, which obey a particular set of chiral equations. Upon imposing the Jacobi identity upon these vector fields, we reproduce a previous formulation of the Einstein equations linked with a generalisation of the Yang-Mills equations for a constant connection on flat space. This formulation suggests the investigation of some new aspects of the self-dual two-forms approach. In the case of real Riemannian metrics, these vector fields have a natural interpretation in terms of the torsion of the natural almost-complex-structure on the projective spin-bundle.