Einstein field equations

[math]R_{\mu \nu} - {1 \over 2}R \, g_{\mu \nu} + \Lambda g_{\mu \nu}= {8 \pi G \over c^4} T_{\mu \nu} [/math]

[math]R_{\mu \nu} [/math] Ricci curvature tensor

where [math]R_{\mu \nu} [/math] is the Ricci curvature tensor, [math]R[/math] is the scalar curvature, [math]g_{\mu \nu} [/math] is the metric tensor, Template:Mvar is the cosmological constant, Template:Mvar is Newton's gravitational constant, Template:Mvar is the speed of light in vacuum, and Template:Mvar is the stress–energy tensor.

Sign convention

The above form of the EFE is the standard established by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler.Template:Sfnp The authors analyzed all conventions that exist and classified according to the following three signs (S1, S2, S3):

[math] \begin{align} g_{\mu \nu} & = [S1] \times \operatorname{diag}(-1,+1,+1,+1) \\[6pt] {R^\mu}_{\alpha \beta \gamma} & = [S2] \times \left(\Gamma^\mu_{\alpha \gamma,\beta}-\Gamma^\mu_{\alpha \beta,\gamma}+\Gamma^\mu_{\sigma \beta}\Gamma^\sigma_{\gamma \alpha}-\Gamma^\mu_{\sigma \gamma}\Gamma^\sigma_{\beta \alpha}\right) \\[6pt] G_{\mu \nu} & = [S3] \times \frac{8 \pi G}{c^4} T_{\mu \nu} \end{align} [/math]

The third sign above is related to the choice of convention for the Ricci tensor:

[math]R_{\mu \nu}=[S2]\times [S3] \times {R^\alpha}_{\mu\alpha\nu} [/math]

With these definitions Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler classify themselves as Template:Math, whereas Weinberg (1972)Template:Sfnp and Peacock (1994)Template:Sfnp are Template:Math, Peebles (1980) and Efstathiou et al. (1990) are Template:Math, Rindler (1977)Template:Citation needed, Atwater (1974)Template:Citation needed, Collins Martin & Squires (1989) are Template:Math.

Authors including Einstein have used a different sign in their definition for the Ricci tensor which results in the sign of the constant on the right side being negative

[math]R_{\mu \nu} - \tfrac{1}{2} R g_{\mu \nu} - \Lambda g_{\mu \nu} = -\frac{8 \pi G}{c^4} T_{\mu \nu}.[/math]

The sign of the (very small) cosmological term would change in both these versions, if the Template:Math metric sign convention is used rather than the MTW Template:Math metric sign convention adopted here.

Equivalent formulations

Taking the trace with respect to the metric of both sides of the EFE one gets

[math]R - \frac{D}{2} R + D \Lambda = \frac{8 \pi G}{c^4} T \,[/math]

where Template:Mvar is the spacetime dimension. This expression can be rewritten as

[math]-R + \frac{D \Lambda}{\frac{D}{2} -1} = \frac{8 \pi G}{c^4} \frac{T}{\frac{D}{2}-1} \,.[/math]

If one adds Template:Math times this to the EFE, one gets the following equivalent "trace-reversed" form

[math]R_{\mu \nu} - \frac{ \Lambda g_{\mu \nu}}{\frac{D}{2}-1} = \frac{8 \pi G}{c^4} \left(T_{\mu \nu} - \frac{1}{D-2}Tg_{\mu \nu}\right) .\,[/math]

For example, in Template:Math dimensions this reduces to

[math]R_{\mu \nu} - \Lambda g_{\mu \nu} = \frac{8 \pi G}{c^4} \left(T_{\mu \nu} - \tfrac{1}{2}T\,g_{\mu \nu}\right) .\,[/math]

Reversing the trace again would restore the original EFE. The trace-reversed form may be more convenient in some cases (for example, when one is interested in weak-field limit and can replace Template:Mvar in the expression on the right with the Minkowski metric without significant loss of accuracy).