2011/08/14 by Israel Quirós, Quiros, Israel, Ricardo García‐Salcedo +3 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #Relativity and Gravitational Theory
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1108.2911
openalex publication_date 2011/08/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
It is demonstrated that, unless the meaning of conformal transformations for the underlying geometrical structure is discussed on a same footing as it is done for the equations of the given gravity theory, the notion of "conformal equivalence", as it has been mostly used in the bibliography to date, lacks physical and mathematical content. A principle of conformal equivalence is then formulated and its consequences are investigated within a conformally invariant modification of Brans-Dicke (BD) theory of gravity. It is also demonstrated that vacuum BD theory (ω≠ -3/2) is not conformally invariant and, consequently, the different conformal frames in which the theory can be formulated are just different - conformally related - representations of a same phenomenon. Hence these can not be compared: either both are physically correct, or none is it.