Spherically Symmetric Problem of General Relativity for an Elastic Solid Sphere

Abstract

The paper is devoted to a spherically symmetric problem of General Relativity (GR) for an elastic solid sphere. Originally developed to describe gravitation in continuum (vacuum, gas, fluid and solid) GR does not provide the complete set of equations for solids and, in contrast to the Newton gravitation theory, does not allow us to study the stresses induced by gravitation in solids, because the compatibility equations which are attracted in the Euclidean space for this purpose do not exist in the Riemannian space. To solve the problem within the framework of GR, a special geometry of the Riemannian space induced by gravitation is proposed. According to this geometry, the four-dimensional Riemannian space is assumed to be Euclidean with respect to the space coordinates and Riemannian with respect to the time coordinate. Such interpretation of the Riemannian space in GR allows us to supplement the conservation equations for the energy-momentum tensor with compatibility equations of the theory of elasticity and to arrive to the complete set of equations for stresses. The analytical solution of the Einstein equations for the empty space surrounding the sphere and the numerical solution for the internal space inside the sphere with the proposed geometry are presented and discussed.