Constraints on Covariance

Abstract

Based on the principle of relativity, we find that the sufficient and necessary condition for the general covariance of a field theory actually requires more than the invariance of its local Langrangian density. If the spacetime is not a flat one, its derivative requirement from the analysis of the parallel transportation of tensor fields over spacetime restricts the generally supposed covariance group, the group of differmorphisms, to the group of linear coordinate transformations. Moreover, for any a field theory with linear equations of motion, it stipulates for a universal physical propagation speed of interaction over the spacetime manifold.