Teleparallel Gravity, Covariance and Their Geometrical Meaning

Abstract: We explore the geometrical meaning of teleparallel geometries and the role of covariance in their definition. We argue that pure gauge connections are a necessary ingredient for describing geometry and gravity in terms of torsion and non-metricity. We show the other viable alternative is using the Einstein and Moller Lagrangians, but these are defined through the Riemannian connection coefficients and hence do not involve torsion nor non-metricity. We argue that the teleparallel geometries can be defined on the manifold without introducing any additional structures and that they naturally provide the covariant framework for the Einstein and Moller Lagrangians. We explore some consequences of this viewpoint for the modified theories of gravity as well.