Definition:Riemann-Christoffel Tensor

Definition
A Riemann-Christoffel tensor is a tensor field which expresses the curvature of a Riemannian manifold.

The Riemann-Christoffel tensor is given in terms of the Levi-Civita connection $\nabla$ by:
 * $R \left({u, v}\right) w = \nabla_u \nabla_v w - \nabla_v \nabla_u w - \nabla_{\left[{u, v}\right]} w$

where $\left[{u, v}\right]$ is the Lie bracket of vector fields.

It measures the extent to which the metric tensor is not locally isometric to that of Euclidean space.

Also known as
The Riemann-Christoffel tensor is also known as the Riemann curvature tensor.