A review of the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity is presented. It is emphasized that general relativity may be formulated in terms of the tetrad fields and of the torsion tensor, and that this geometrical formulation leads to alternative insights into the theory. The equivalence with the standard formulation in terms of the metric and curvature tensors takes place at the level of field equations. The review starts with a brief account of the history of teleparallel theories of gravity. Then the ordinary interpretation of the tetrad fields as reference frames adapted to arbitrary observers in space-time is discussed, and the tensor of inertial accelerations on frames is obtained. It is shown that the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian field equations allow us to define the energy, momentum and angular momentum of the gravitational field, as surface integrals of the field quantities. In the phase space of the theory, these quantities satisfy the algebra of the Poincaré group.

The Hamiltonian formulation of the teleparallel description of Einstein’s general relativity is established. Under a particular gauge fixing the Hamiltonian of the theory is written in terms of first class constraints. The algebra of the Hamiltonian and vector constraints resembles that of the standard Arnowitt–Deser–Misner formulation. This geometrical framework might be relevant as it is known that in manifolds with vanishing curvature tensor but with nonzero torsion tensor it is possible to carry out a simple construction of Becchi–Rouet–Stora–Tyutin-like operators.

The Hamiltonian formulation of the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity is considered. Definitions of energy, momentum and angular momentum of the gravitational field arise from the integral form of the constraint equations of the theory. In particular, the gravitational energy-momentum is given by the integral of scalar densities over a three-dimensional spacelike hypersurface. The definition for the gravitational energy is investigated in the context of the Kerr black hole. In the evaluation of the energy contained within the external event horizon of the Kerr black hole, we obtain a value strikingly close to the irreducible mass of the latter. The gravitational angular momentum is evaluated for the gravitational field of a thin, slowly rotating mass shell.

We establish the Hamiltonian formulation of the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity, without fixing the time gauge condition, by rigorously performing the Legendre transform. The time gauge condition, previously considered, restricts the teleparallel geometry to the three-dimensional spacelike hypersurface. Geometrically, the teleparallel geometry is now extended to the four-dimensional space-time.The resulting Hamiltonian formulation is structurally different from the standard ADM formulation in many aspects, the main one being that the dynamics is now governed by the Hamiltonian constraint H 0 and a set of primary constraints. The vector constraint H i is derived from the Hamiltonian constraint. The vanishing of the latter implies the vanishing of the vector constraint.

We consider the interpretation of tetrad fields as reference frames in spacetime. Reference frames may be characterized by an antisymmetric acceleration tensor, whose components are identified as the inertial accelerations of the frame (the translational acceleration and the frequency of rotation of the frame). This tensor is closely related to gravitoelectromagnetic field quantities. We construct the set of tetrad fields adapted to observers that are in free fall in the Schwarzschild spacetime, and show that the gravitational energy-momentum constructed out of this set of tetrad fields, in the framework of the teleparallel equivalent of general relatrivity, vanishes. This result is in agreement with the principle of equivalence, and may be taken as a condition for a viable definition of gravitational energy.