Static charged spheres with anisotropic pressure in general relativity

We report a generalization of our earlier formalism [Pramana, 54, 663 (1998)] to obtain exact solutions of Einstein-Maxwell’s equations for static spheres filled with a charged fluid having anisotropic pressure and of null conductivity. Defining new variables: w=(4π/3)(ρ+ε)r ², u=4πξr ², v _r=4πp _r r ², v _⊥=4πp _⊥ r ²[ρ, ξ(=−(1/2)F ₁₄ F ¹⁴), p _r, p _⊥ being respectively the energy densities of matter and electrostatic fields, radial and transverse fluid pressures whereas ε denotes the eigenvalue of the conformal Weyl tensor and interpreted as the energy density of the free gravitational field], we have recast Einstein’s field equations into a form easy to integrate. Since the system is underdetermined we make the following assumptions to solve the field equations (i) u=v _r=(a ²/2κ)r ⁿ⁺², v _⊥=k ₁ v _r, w=k ₂ v _r; a ², n(>0), k ₁, k ₂ being constants with κ=((k ₁+2)/3+k ₂) and (ii) w+u=(b ²/2)r ⁿ⁺², u=v _r, v _⊥−v _r=k, with b and k as constants. In both cases the field equations are integrated completely. The first solution is regular in the metric as well as physical variables for all values of n>0. Even though the second solution contains terms like k/r ² since Q(0)=0 it is argued that the pressure anisotropy, caused by the electric flux near the centre, can be made to vanish reducing it to the generalized Cooperstock-de la Cruz solution given in [14]. The interior solutions are shown to match with the exterior Reissner-Nordstrom solution over a fixed boundary. Dedicated to Prof. F A E Pirani.