Torsion and Gravity

The term Torsion appears after publishing general theory of relativity (theory of Gravity) by Albert Einstein. There were some attempts to integrate general relativity with the micro world through introducing Torsion. Einstein himself with Cartan, Sciama and Kibble all worked on extending the theory of general relativity. The idea first started from Elie Cartan, 1922. In general relativity the torsion tensor, which is anti-symmetric part of affine connection vanishes. The attempt was to assume a non-vanishing anti-symmetric part of connection, which lead to introducing Torsion tensor which can be coupled to intrinsic spin (angular momentum) of matter. On the other hand, both Sciama and Kibble, 1960, worked on this idea independently, they come up with the same results which lead to publishing a new theory called ECSK theory. The word ECSK is composed of the first letters (E,C,S,K) of the name of the scientists, Einstein, Cartan, Sciam and Kibble, who contributed in composing this theory.