Newman-Penrose Formalism and Gravitational Impulsive and Shock Waves

Vacuum spacetimes endowed with two commuting spacelike Killing vector fields are considered. Subject to the hypothesis that there exists a shearfree null geodesic congruence orthogonal to the two-surface generated by the two commuting spacelike Killing vector fields,it is shown that, with a specific choice of null tetrad, the Newman-Penrose equations are reduced to an ordinary differential equation of Riccati type. fiom the consideration of this differential equation, exact solutions of the vacuum Einstein field equations with distribution valued Weyl curvature describing the propagation of gravitational impulsive and shock wave of variable polarization are then constructed.     

Symmetries of cosmological Cauchy horizons

We consider analytic vacuum and electrovacuum spacetimes which contain a compact null hypersurface ruled byclosed null generators. We prove that each such spacetime has a non-trivial Killing symmetry. We distinguish two classes of null surfaces, degenerate and non-degenerate ones, characterized by the zero or non-zero value of a constant analogous to the “surface gravity” of stationary black holes. We show that the non-degenerate null surfaces are always Cauchy horizons across which the Killing fields change from spacelike (in the globally hyperbolic regions) to timelike (in the acausal, analytic extensions). For the special case of a null surface diffeomorphic toT ³ we characterize the degenerate vacuum solutions completely. These consist of an infinite dimensional family of “plane wave” spacetimes which are entirely foliated by compact null surfaces. Previous work by one of us has shown that, when one dimensional Killing symmetries are allowed, then infinite dimensional families of non-degenerate, vacuum solutions exist. We recall these results for the case of Cauchy horizons diffeomorphic toT ³ and prove the generality of the previously constructed non-degenerate solutions. We briefly discuss the possibility of removing the assumptions of closed generators and analyticity and proving an appropriate generalization of our main results. Such a generalization would provide strong support for the cosmic censorship conjecture by showing that causality violating, cosmological solutions of Einstein's equations are essentially an artefact of symmetry.     

Peeling of Dirac and Maxwell fields on a Schwarzschild background

We study the peeling of Dirac and Maxwell fields on a Schwarzschild background following the approach developed by the authors in Mason and Nicolas (2009) [12] for the wave equation. The method combines a conformal compactification with vector field techniques in order to work out the optimal space of initial data for a given transverse regularity of the rescaled field across null infinity. The results show that analogous decay and regularity assumptions in Minkowski and Schwarzschild produce the same regularity across null infinity. The results are valid also for the classes of asymptotically simple spacetimes constructed by Corvino–Schoen/Chru?ciel–Delay.     

Analytical Solutions of the Gravitational Field Equations in de Sitter and Anti-de Sitter Spacetimes

The generalized Laplace partial differential equation, describing gravitational fields, is investigated in de Sitter spacetime from several metric approaches—such as the Riemann, Beltrami, Börner-Dürr, and Prasad metrics—and analytical solutions of the derived Riccati radial differential equations are explicitly obtained. All angular differential equations trivially have solutions given by the spherical harmonics and all radial differential equations can be written as Riccati ordinary differential equations, which analytical solutions involve hypergeometric and Bessel functions. In particular, the radial differential equations predict the behavior of the gravitational field in de Sitter and anti-de Sitter spacetimes, and can shed new light on the investigations of quasinormal modes of perturbations of electromagnetic and gravitational fields in black hole neighborhood. The discussion concerning the geometry of de Sitter and anti-de Sitter spacetimes is not complete without mentioning how the wave equation behaves on such a background. It will prove convenient to begin with a discussion of the Laplace equation on hyperbolic space, partly since this is of interest in itself and also because the wave equation can be investigated by means of an analytic continuation from the hyperbolic space. We also solve the Laplace equation associated to the Prasad metric. After introducing the so called internal and external spaces—corresponding to the symmetry groups SO(3,2) and SO(4,1) respectively—we show that both radial differential equations can be led to Riccati ordinary differential equations, which solutions are given in terms of associated Legendre functions. For the Prasad metric with the radius of the universe independent of the parametrization, the internal and external metrics are shown to be of AdS-Schwarzschild-like type, and also the radial field equations arising are shown to be equivalent to Riccati equations whose solutions can be written in terms of generalized Laguerre polynomials and hypergeometric confluent functions.     

Kundt solutions of Einstein's equations with one non-null Killing vector

The Kundt class of algebraically special solutions of Einstein's field equations, representing vacuum and electromagnetic null fields with one twisting, non-null Killing vector, is discussed. This generalizes the case with a hypersurface-orthogonal Killing vector field which is discussed by Kramer and Neugebauer [3]. The solutions are shown to be equivalent to the Hoenselaers (vacuum) and Hoenselaers-Skea (electromagnetic null) solutions, once some small corrections and the relevant coordinate transformations are made to the latter solutions.     

On gravitational shock waves in curved spacetimes

Some years ago Dray and 't Hooft found the necessary and sufficient conditions to introduce a gravitational shock wave in a particular class of vacuum solutions to Einstein's equations. We extend this work to cover cases where non-vanishing matter fields and a cosmological constant are present. The sources of gravitational waves are massless particles moving along a null surface such as a horizon in the case of black holes. After we discuss the general case we give many explicit examples. Among them are the d-dimensional charged black hole (that includes the 4-dimensional Reissner-Nordström and the d-dimensional Schwarzschild solution as subcases), the 4-dimensional De Sitter and anti-De Sitter spaces (and the Schwarzschild-De Sitter black hole), the 3-dimensional anti-De Sitter black hole, as well as backgrounds with a covariantly constant null Killing vector. We also address the analogous problem for string-inspired gravitational solutions nd give a few examples.     

Homothetic and conformal symmetries of solutions to Einstein's equations

We present several results about the nonexistence of solutions of Einstein's equations with homothetic or conformal symmetry. We show that the only spatially compact, globally hyperbolic spacetimes admitting a hypersurface of constant mean extrinsic curvature, and also admitting an infinitesimal proper homothetic symmetry, are everywhere locally flat; this assumes that the matter fields either obey certain energy conditions, or are the Yang-Mills or massless Klein-Gordon fields. We find that the only vacuum solutions admitting an infinitesimal proper conformal symmetry are everywhere locally flat spacetimes and certain plane wave solutions. We show that if the dominant energy condition is assumed, then Minkowski spacetime is the only asymptotically flat solution which has an infinitesimal conformal symmetry that is asymptotic to a dilation. In other words, with the exceptions cited, homothetic or conformal Killing fields are in fact Killing in spatially compact or asymptotically flat spactimes. In the conformal procedure for solving the initial value problem, we show that data with infinitesimal conformal symmetry evolves to a spacetime with full isometry.     

Blow-up of test fields near Cauchy horizons

The behaviour of test fields near a compact Cauchy horizon is investigated. It is shown that solutions of nonlinear wave equations on Taub spacetime with generic initial data cannot be continued smoothly to both extensions of the spacetime through the Cauchy horizon. This is proved using an energy method. Similar results are obtained for the spacetimes of Moncrief containing a compact Cauchy horizon and for more general matter models.Partially supported by NSF grant DMS 9003256 and Office of Naval Research grant ONR NO 014 92 J 1245.     

Obtaining a class of type O pure radiation metrics with a negative cosmological constant,using invariant operators

Using the generalised invariant formalism we derive a special subclass of conformally flat spacetimes whose Ricci tensor has a pure radiation and a Ricci scalar component. The method used is a development of the methods used earlier for pure radiation spacetimes of Petrov types O and N, respectively. In this paper we demonstrate how to handle, in the generalised invariant formalism, spacetimes with isotropy freedom and rich Killing vector structure. Once the spacetimes have been constructed, it is straightforward to deduce their Karlhede classification: the Karlhede algorithm terminates at the fourth derivative order, and the spacetimes all have one degree of null isotropy and three, four or five Killing vectors.     

Weyl type N solutions with null electromagnetic fields in the Einstein–Maxwell <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-form theory

We consider d-dimensional solutions to the electrovacuum Einstein–Maxwell equations with the Weyl tensor of type N and a null Maxwell \((p+1)\)-form field. We prove that such spacetimes are necessarily aligned, i.e. the Weyl tensor of the corresponding spacetime and the electromagnetic field share the same aligned null direction (AND). Moreover, this AND is geodetic, shear-free, non-expanding and non-twisting and hence Einstein–Maxwell equations imply that Weyl type N spacetimes with a null Maxwell \((p+1)\)-form field belong to the Kundt class. Moreover, these Kundt spacetimes are necessarily \({ CSI}\) and the \((p+1)\)-form is \({ VSI}\). Finally, a general coordinate form of solutions and a reduction of the field equations are discussed.     

On the characterization of vector rogue waves in two-dimensional two coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations with distributed coefficients

We construct vector rogue wave solutions of the two-dimensional two coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations with distributed coefficients, namely diffraction, nonlinearity and gain parameters through similarity transformation technique. We transform the two-dimensional two coupled variable coefficients nonlinear Schrödinger equations into Manakov equation with a constraint that connects diffraction and gain parameters with nonlinearity parameter. We investigate the characteristics of the constructed vector rogue wave solutions with four different forms of diffraction parameters. We report some interesting patterns that occur in the rogue wave structures. Further, we construct vector dark rogue wave solutions of the two-dimensional two coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations with distributed coefficients and report some novel characteristics that we observe in the vector dark rogue wave solutions.     

Neutrino fields in Einstein-Cartan theory

The spin-coefficient formalism presented elsewhere is here applied to classical neutrino fields in Einstein-Cartan theory. It is shown that the neutrino current vector is tangent to an expansion-free null geodesic congruence with constant and equal twist and shear, which vanish if and only if the congruence is a repeated principal null congruence of the gravitational field. The geodesics are both extremals and autoparallels. All exact solutions for the case of pure radiation fields are obtained, and it is shown that the only possible ghost solutions have a plane wave metric.     

一类激波问题的间接匹配解

研究了一类非线性奇摄动方程的激波问题.利用间接匹配法，构造出激波在区间内的激波解. 关键词： 非线性方程 激波 间接匹配     

Wave Equations for Classical Two-Component Proca Fields in Curved Spacetimes with Torsionless Affinities

The world formulation of the full theory of classical Proca fields in generally relativistic spacetimes is reviewed. Subsequently, the entire set of field equations is transcribed in a straightforward way into the framework of one of the Infeld-van der Waerden formalisms. Some well-known calculational techniques are then utilized for deriving the wave equations that control the propagation of the fields allowed for. It appears that no interaction couplings between such fields and electromagnetic curvatures are ultimately carried by the wave equations at issue. What results is, in effect, that the only interactions which occur in the theoretical context under consideration involve strictly Proca fields and wave functions for gravitons.     

Geodesic Bianchi type cosmological models

Some perfect fluid solutions of Einstein's field equations are obtained in spacetimes with two hypersurface orthogonal space-lika commuting Killing vectors. The flow is assumed to be geodesic. The solutions depend on an arbitrary function of time which determines the equation of state. In the models derived one additional Killing vector exists and the solutions are actually Bianchi-type cosmological models.     

Strings in Anisotropic Cosmological Spacetimes

We present a general method to reduce the full set of equations of motion and constraints in the conformal gauge for the bosonic string moving in a four-dimensional curved spacetime manifold with two spacelike Killing vector fields, to a set of six coupled first-order partial differential equations in six unknown functions. By an explicit transformation the constraints are solved identically and one ends up with only the equations of motion and integrability conditions. We apply the method to the family of inhomogeneous, non-singular cosmological models of Senovilla possessing two spacelike Killing vector fields, and show how one can extract classes of special exact solutions, even for this highly complicated metric. For the case of the same family of exact cosmological spacetimes, we give an explicit example, not previously encountered, where we have a direct and mutual transfer of energy between the string and the gravitational field.     

Gravitational Collapse of Self-Similar Perfect Fluid in 2 + 1 Gravity

Perfect fluid with kinematic self-similarity is studied in 2+1 dimensional spacetimes with circular symmetry, and various exact solutions to the Einstein field equations are given. These include all the solutions of dust and stiff perfect fluid with self-similarity of the first kind, and all the solutions of perfect fluid with a linear equation of state and self-similarity of the zeroth and second kinds. It is found that some of these solutions represent gravitational collapse, and the final state of the collapse can be either a black hole or a null singularity. It is also shown that one solution can have two different kinds of kinematic self-similarity.     

Centrifugal deformations of the gravitational kink

The Kaluza-Klein reduction of 4d conformally flat spacetimes is reconsidered. The corresponding 3d equations are shown to be equivalent to 2d gravitational kink equations augmented by a centrifugal term. For space-like gauge fields and non-trivial values of the centrifugal term the gravitational kink solutions describe a spacetime that is divided in two disconnected regions.     

Vacuum spacetimes with a two-dimensional orthogonally transitive group of homothetic motions

Vacuum spacetimes with a two-dimensional orthogonally transitive groupH ₂ of proper homothetic motions acting on nonnull orbits are investigated with the aid of the Geroch-Held-Penrose formalism. It is found that these spacetimes admit in general anH ₃ of homothetic motions containing two commuting and hypersurface orthogonal Killing vector fields. The metric equations are integrated, and the line elements of the spacetimes in question are explicitly given in a diagonal form.     

PLANE SYMMETRIC GENERAL SOLUTION TO EINSTEIN-MAXWELL EQUATIONS IN HIGHER DIMENSIONS

The plane symmetric general solution to the Einstein-Maxwell equations in D =n+2 dimensions is presented. In addition to the n(n+1)/2 spacelike Killing vector fields characterizing the higher dimensional plane symmetry, there is also an extra Killing vector field in the solution, suggesting that the generalized Birkhoff theorem proved for 4-dimensional spacetimes might also be valid in higher dimensions.