Novel Geometric Gauge Invariance of Autoparallels

Abstract

We draw attention to a novel type of geometric gauge invariance relating the autoparallel equations of motion in different Riemann-Cartan spacetimes with each other. The novelty lies in the fact that the equations of motion are invariant even though the actions are not. As an application we use this gauge transformation to map the action of a spinless point particle in a Riemann-Cartan spacetime with a gradient torsion to a purely Riemann spacetime, in which the initial torsion appears as a nongeometric external field. By extremizing the transformed action in the usual way, we obtain the same autoparallel equations of motion as those derived in the initial spacetime with torsion via a recently-discovered variational principle.