[Math] Divergence from covariant derivative

differential-geometrydivergence-operatorgeneral-relativity

I was reading my GR textbook when I came across the definition of the covariant derivative in coordinate form. Now, to get some experience with it, I decided to play around with it and see if I could construct some definitions from vector calculus with it. Now, for the Laplacian, this works fine, giving $$\nabla^{\mu}\partial_{\mu}\phi=g^{\mu\nu}(\partial_{\nu}\partial_{\mu}\phi-\Gamma^{\lambda}_{\nu\mu}\partial_{\lambda}\phi)$$

This expression works perfectly well for the three-dimensional metrics for spherical, cylindrical, etc.. Note that $\Gamma^{\mu}_{\nu\sigma}$ are the Christoffel coefficients describing the Levi-Civita connection. Now, when I try to find, say, a generalized expression for the divergence the same way, $$\nabla_{\mu}V^{\mu}=\partial_{\mu}V^{\mu}+\Gamma^{\mu}_{\mu\lambda}V^{\lambda}$$
this fails every time, save for on a Cartesian metric. Why does one work and not the other?

Best Answer

The reason you get a different (but not wrong) answer from what you might find on the wikipedia page for Del in Cylindrical and Spherical Coordinates, is because the defintions for the basis vectors of the vector fields have changed. In vector calculus we used unit vectors. But on a manifold, unit vectors are not the natural choice, we use partial derivatives.

Take 3D spherical coordinates and consider the basis vector $\partial_\theta$ that you might find in a GR book. If the definitions for vector calculus stuff were to line up with their tensor calculus counterparts then $\partial_\theta$ would have to be a unit vector. But using the defintion of the metric in spherical coordinates,

$$\partial_\theta \partial^\theta = g^{\theta\theta} = \frac{1}{r^2}$$

So in fact the component of the vector field in that direction is actually not the same between the two conventions, they're distorted by a scale factor.

Related Question