Raising and lowering indices


In mathematics and mathematical physics, raising and lowering indices are operations on tensors which change their type. Raising and lowering indices are a form of index manipulation in tensor expressions.

Tensor type

Given a tensor field on a manifold, in the presence of a nonsingular form on , one can raise or lower indices to change a type tensor to a tensor or to a tensor, where the notation has been used to denote the tensor order with upper indices and lower indices.
One does this by multiplying by the covariant or contravariant metric tensor and then contracting indices, meaning two indices are set equal and then summed over the repeated indices. See examples below.

Vectors (order-1 tensors)

Multiplying by the contravariant metric tensor and contracting produces another tensor with an upper index:
The same base symbol is typically used to denote this new tensor, and repositioning the index is typically understood in this context to refer to this new tensor, and is called raising the index, which would be written
Similarly, multiplying by the covariant metric tensor and contracting lowers an index :
The form need not be nonsingular to lower an index, but to get the inverse it must be nonsingular.
Raising and then lowering the same index are inverse operations, which is reflected in the covariant and contravariant metric tensors being inverse to each other:
where is the Kronecker delta or identity matrix. Since there are different choices of metric with different metric signatures, the name and signature is usually indicated to prevent confusion. Different authors use different metrics and signatures for different reasons.
Mnemonically, one could think of indices "cancelling" between a metric and another tensor, and the metric stepping up or down the index. In the above examples, such "cancellations" and "steps" are like
Again, while a helpful guide, this is only mnemonical and not a property of tensors since the indices do not cancel like in equations, it is only a concept of the notation. The results are continued below, for higher order tensors.
When raising indices of quantities in spacetime, it helps to decompose summations into "timelike components" and "spacelike components".

An example from [Minkowski spacetime]

The covariant 4-position is given by
with components:
and the Minkowski metric tensor with signature is defined as
in components:
To raise the index, multiply by the tensor and contract:
then for :
and for :
So the index-raised contravariant 4-position is:

Tensors (higher order)

Order 2

For an order-2 tensor, twice multiplying by the contravariant metric tensor and contracting in different indices raises each index:
and twice multiplying by the covariant metric tensor and contracting in different indices lowers each index:

An example from [classical electromagnetism and special relativity]

The contravariant electromagnetic tensor in the signature is given by
in components:
To obtain the covariant tensor, multiply by the metric tensor and contract:
and since F00 = 0 and F0i = − Fi0, this reduces to
Now for, :
and by antisymmetry, for, :
then finally for, ;
The lower indexed tensor is then:

Order ''''

When a vector space is equipped with an inner product, there exist operations that convert a contravariant index into a covariant index and vice versa. A metric itself is a -tensor, it is thus possible to contract an upper index of a tensor with one of the lower indices of the metric. This produces a new tensor with the same index structure as the previous, but with lower index in the position of the contracted upper index. This operation is quite graphically known as lowering an index.
Conversely, a metric has an inverse which is a -tensor. This inverse metric can be contracted with a lower index to produce an upper index. This operation is called raising an index.
For a tensor of order, indices are raised by :
and lowered by:
and for a mixed tensor: