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de Sitter spacetime
This worksheet demonstrates a few capabilities of SageManifolds (version 0.8) in computations regarding de Sitter spacetime.
It is released under the GNU General Public License version 3.
(c) Eric Gourgoulhon, Michal Bejger (2015)
The corresponding worksheet file can be downloaded from here
Spacetime manifold
We declare the de Sitter spacetime as a 4-dimensional differentiable manifold:
We consider hyperspherical coordinates $(\tau,\chi,\theta,\phi)$ on $\mathcal{M}$. Allowing for the standard coordinate singularities at $\chi=0$, $\chi=\pi$, $\theta=0$ or $\theta=\pi$, these coordinates cover the entire spacetime manifold (which is topologically $\mathbb{R}\times\mathbb{S}^3$). If we restrict ourselves to regular coordinates (i.e. to consider only mathematically well defined charts), the hyperspherical coordinates cover only an open part of $\mathcal{M}$, which we call $\mathcal{M}_0$, on which $\chi$ spans the open interval $(0,\pi)$, $\theta$ the open interval $(0,\pi)$ and $\phi$ the open interval $(0,2\pi)$. Therefore, we declare:
$\mathbb{R}^5$ as an ambient space
The de Sitter metric can be defined as that induced by the embedding of $\mathcal{M}$ into a 5-dimensional Minkowski space, i.e. $\mathbb{R}^5$ equipped with a flat Lorentzian metric. We therefore introduce $\mathbb{R}^5$ as a 5-dimensional manifold covered by canonical coordinates:
The embedding of $\mathcal{M}$ into $\mathbb{R}^5$ is defined as a differential mapping $\Phi$ from $\mathcal{M}$ to $\mathbb{R}^5$, by providing its expression in terms of $\mathcal{M}$'s default chart (which is X_hyp = $(\mathcal{M}_0,(\tau,\chi,\theta,\phi))$ ) and $\mathbb{R}^5$'s default chart (which is X5 = $(\mathbb{R}^5,(T,W,X,Y,Z))$ ):
The constant $b$ is a scale parameter. Considering de Sitter metric as a solution of vacuum Einstein equation with positive cosmological constant $\Lambda$, one has $b = \sqrt{\Lambda/3}$.Â
Let us evaluate the image of a point via the mapping $\Phi$:
The image of $\mathcal{M}$ by $\Phi$ is a hyperboloid of one sheet, of equation $-T^2+W^2+X^2+Y^2+Z^2=b^{-2}$. Indeed:
We may use the embedding $\Phi$ to draw the coordinate grid $(\tau,\chi)$ in terms of the coordinates $(W,X,T)$ for $\theta=\pi/2$ and $\phi=0$ (red) and $\theta=\pi/2$ and $\phi=\pi$ (green) (the brown lines are the lines $\tau={\rm const}$):
Spacetime metric
First, we introduce on $\mathbb{R}^5$ the Minkowski metric $h$:
As mentioned above, the de Sitter metric $g$ on $\mathcal{M}$ is that induced by $h$, i.e.$g$ is the pullback of $h$ by the mapping $\Phi$:
The expression of $g$ in terms of $\mathcal{M}$'s default frame is found to be
Curvature
The Riemann tensor of $g$ is
The Ricci tensor:
The Ricci scalar:
We recover the fact that de Sitter spacetime has a constant curvature. It is indeed a maximally symmetric space. In particular, the Riemann tensor is expressible as
\[ R^i_{\ \, jlk} = \frac{R}{n(n-1)} \left( \delta^i_{\ \, k} g_{jl} - \delta^i_{\ \, l} g_{jk} \right) \]
where $n$ is the dimension of $\mathcal{M}$: $n=4$ in the present case. Let us check this formula here, under the form $R^i_{\ \, jlk} = -\frac{R}{6} g_{j[k} \delta^i_{\ \, l]}$:
We may also check that de Sitter metric is a solution of the vacuum Einstein equation with (positive) cosmological constant: