These equations need to be refined such that the notation is defined as has been done for the previous sets of equations.

Name	Equations
Strong force	${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}{\mathcal {L}}_{\mathrm {QCD} }&={\bar {\psi }}_{i}\left(i\gamma ^{\mu }(D_{\mu })_{ij}-m\,\delta _{ij}\right)\psi _{j}-{\frac {1}{4}}G_{\mu \nu }^{a}G_{a}^{\mu \nu }\\&={\bar {\psi }}_{i}(i\gamma ^{\mu }\partial _{\mu }-m)\psi _{i}-gG_{\mu }^{a}{\bar {\psi }}_{i}\gamma ^{\mu }T_{ij}^{a}\psi _{j}-{\frac {1}{4}}G_{\mu \nu }^{a}G_{a}^{\mu \nu }\,,\\\end{aligned}}\,\!}$
Electroweak interaction	:${\displaystyle {\mathcal {L}}_{EW}={\mathcal {L}}_{g}+{\mathcal {L}}_{f}+{\mathcal {L}}_{h}+{\mathcal {L}}_{y}.\,\!}$ ${\displaystyle {\mathcal {L}}_{g}=-{\frac {1}{4}}W_{a}^{\mu \nu }W_{\mu \nu }^{a}-{\frac {1}{4}}B^{\mu \nu }B_{\mu \nu }\,\!}$ ${\displaystyle {\mathcal {L}}_{f}={\overline {Q}}_{i}iD\!\!\!\!/\;Q_{i}+{\overline {u}}_{i}^{c}iD\!\!\!\!/\;u_{i}^{c}+{\overline {d}}_{i}^{c}iD\!\!\!\!/\;d_{i}^{c}+{\overline {L}}_{i}iD\!\!\!\!/\;L_{i}+{\overline {e}}_{i}^{c}iD\!\!\!\!/\;e_{i}^{c}\,\!}$ ${\displaystyle {\mathcal {L}}_{h}=|D_{\mu }h|^{2}-\lambda \left(|h|^{2}-{\frac {v^{2}}{2}}\right)^{2}\,\!}$ ${\displaystyle {\mathcal {L}}_{y}=-y_{u\,ij}\epsilon ^{ab}\,h_{b}^{\dagger }\,{\overline {Q}}_{ia}u_{j}^{c}-y_{d\,ij}\,h\,{\overline {Q}}_{i}d_{j}^{c}-y_{e\,ij}\,h\,{\overline {L}}_{i}e_{j}^{c}+h.c.\,\!}$
Quantum electrodynamics	${\displaystyle {\mathcal {L}}={\bar {\psi }}(i\gamma ^{\mu }D_{\mu }-m)\psi -{\frac {1}{4}}F_{\mu \nu }F^{\mu \nu }\;,\,\!}$

see: General relativity, Einstein field equations, List of equations in gravitation

where R_μν is the Ricci curvature tensor, R is the scalar curvature, g_μν is the metric tensor, Λ is the cosmological constant, G is Newton's gravitational constant, c is the speed of light in vacuum, and T_μν is the stress–energy tensor.

One can write the EFE in a more compact form by defining the Einstein tensor

${\displaystyle G_{\mu \nu }=R_{\mu \nu }-{\tfrac {1}{2}}Rg_{\mu \nu },}$

which is a symmetric second-rank tensor that is a function of the metric. The EFE can then be written as

${\displaystyle G_{\mu \nu }+\Lambda g_{\mu \nu }={\frac {8\pi G}{c^{4}}}T_{\mu \nu }.}$

In standard units, each term on the left has units of 1/length². With this choice of Einstein constant as 8πG/c⁴, then the stress-energy tensor on the right side of the equation must be written with each component in units of energy-density (i.e., energy per volume = pressure).

Using geometrized units where G = c = 1, this can be rewritten as

${\displaystyle G_{\mu \nu }+\Lambda g_{\mu \nu }=8\pi T_{\mu \nu }\,.}$

The expression on the left represents the curvature of spacetime as determined by the metric; the expression on the right represents the matter/energy content of spacetime. The EFE can then be interpreted as a set of equations dictating how matter/energy determines the curvature of spacetime.

These equations, together with the geodesic equation, ^[1] which dictates how freely-falling matter moves through space-time, form the core of the mathematical formulation of general relativity.

The above form of the EFE is the standard established by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler. ^[2] The authors analyzed all conventions that exist and classified according to the following three signs (S1, S2, S3):

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}g_{\mu \nu }&=[S1]\times \operatorname {diag} (-1,+1,+1,+1)\\[6pt]{R^{\mu }}_{\alpha \beta \gamma }&=[S2]\times \left(\Gamma _{\alpha \gamma ,\beta }^{\mu }-\Gamma _{\alpha \beta ,\gamma }^{\mu }+\Gamma _{\sigma \beta }^{\mu }\Gamma _{\gamma \alpha }^{\sigma }-\Gamma _{\sigma \gamma }^{\mu }\Gamma _{\beta \alpha }^{\sigma }\right)\\[6pt]G_{\mu \nu }&=[S3]\times {\frac {8\pi G}{c^{4}}}T_{\mu \nu }\end{aligned}}}$

The third sign above is related to the choice of convention for the Ricci tensor:

${\displaystyle R_{\mu \nu }=[S2]\times [S3]\times {R^{\alpha }}_{\mu \alpha \nu }}$

With these definitions Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler classify themselves as (+ + +), whereas Weinberg (1972) ^[3] and Peacock (1994) ^[4] are (+ − −), Peebles (1980) ^[5] and Efstathiou et al. (1990) ^[6] are (− + +), Rindler (1977)^{[ citation needed]}, Atwater (1974)^{[ citation needed]}, Collins Martin & Squires (1989) ^[7] are (− + −).

Authors including Einstein have used a different sign in their definition for the Ricci tensor which results in the sign of the constant on the right side being negative

${\displaystyle R_{\mu \nu }-{\tfrac {1}{2}}Rg_{\mu \nu }-\Lambda g_{\mu \nu }=-{\frac {8\pi G}{c^{4}}}T_{\mu \nu }.}$

The sign of the (very small) cosmological term would change in both these versions, if the (+ − − −) metric sign convention is used rather than the MTW (− + + +) metric sign convention adopted here.