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Overlap with Curvature invariant (general relativity)[edit]

After I rewrote this, I noticed the result is virtually identically to a pre-existing article which I wrote. Which however contains a good reference and more material.

So why do we need this one? Is the idea that someone searching on "Kretschmann scalar" might not find the other article? If so, don't use Wikipedia search (the database for this apparently is months behind in indexing the article space), use the much faster and more up-to-date Google "search Wikipedia" function.

After some mulling, I think that the earlier article will eventually contain enough material to be distinguishable from this one.---CH 18:24, 24 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Students beware[edit]

I extensively edited an earlier version of this article and had been monitoring it for bad edits, but I am leaving the WP and am now abandoning this article to its fate.

Just wanted to provide notice that I am only responsible (in part) for the last version I edited; see User:Hillman/Archive. I emphatically do not vouch for anything you might see in more recent versions. Unfortunately, Kretschmann's contributions to physics have recently been misrepresented in UseNet posts by the permabanned JackSarfatti (talk · contribs), who has edited as an anon after his ban. Given this, I have reason to believe that at least some future versions of this article may be vandalized or may contain slanted information, misinformation, or disinformation. Beware also of external links to outside websites, particularly links added by anons. These may attempt to misleadingly portrary some pseudoscience or fringe science topics as being more respectable than is really the case.

Good luck in your search for information, regardless!---CH 01:36, 1 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

physical interpretation[edit]

What is the geometric or physical meaning of this scalar K? I understand it is useful because it is less likely to be trivially zero in vacuum than other simple scalars, and that its singular behaviour tends to coincide with spacetime (noncoordinate) singularities. But what is it's original motivation, and what does it actually measure (or even better, how would one construct an apparatus to directly measure it)? Cesiumfrog (talk) 14:16, 20 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Relation to generalised (non-abelian) curvature[edit]

There is a mention of the Kretschmann scalar being mathematically equivalent to $F_{ab}F^{ab}$ in electromagnetism but maybe it is worth pointing out its relation to the Yang-Mills Lagrangian term ${\text{Tr}}(F_{ab}F^{ab})$ , especially as it is an example of the latter case? There could perhaps also be a short calculation to justify this?

Zephyr the west wind (talk)