Tensors and Relativity: Chapter 3
Metrics and forms
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Recall that the scalar product of two four- vectors is :
so
where
are the components of the metric tensor .
We can think of the metric tensor as a map which takes two four- vectors and
into the reals:
.
The map is linear in the arguments, in the sense that
We can generalize this by defining a tensor of type 0/N as a map which takes N four- vectors into the reals which is linear in all its arguments, for example the metric tensor is a type 0/2 tensor.