Abstract

The Hamiltonian formulation of the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity is developed from an ordinary second-order Lagrangian, which is written as a quadratic form of the coefficients of anholonomy of the orthonormal frames (vielbeins). We analyze the structure of eigenvalues of the multi-index matrix entering the (linear) relation between canonical velocities and momenta to obtain the set of primary constraints. The canonical Hamiltonian is then built with the Moore-Penrose pseudoinverse of that matrix. The set of constraints, including the subsequent secondary constraints, completes a first-class algebra. This means that all of them generate gauge transformations. The gauge freedoms are basically the diffeomorphisms and the (local) Lorentz transformations of the vielbein. In particular, the Arnowitt, Deser, and Misner algebra of general relativity is recovered as a subalgebra.