Raising and Lowering Indices - Tensor Type

Tensor Type

Given a tensor field on a manifold M, in the presence of a nonsingular form on M (such as a Riemannian metric or Minkowski metric), one can raise or lower indices to change a type (a, b) tensor to a (a + 1, b − 1) tensor (raise index) or to a (a − 1, b + 1) tensor (lower index), where the notation (a, b) has been used to denote the tensor order a + b with a upper indices and b 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 summing over the repeated indices (applying Einstein notation). See examples below.