Stability of generic thin shells in conformally flat spacetimes

Some important spacetimes are conformally flat; examples are the Robertson–Walker cosmological metric, the Einstein–de Sitter spacetime, and the Levi-Civita–Bertotti–Robinson and Mannheim metrics. In this paper we construct generic thin shells in conformally flat spacetime supported by a perfect fluid with a linear equation of state, i.e., \(p=\omega \sigma .\) It is shown that, for the physical domain of \(\omega \), i.e., \(0<\omega \le 1\), such thin shells are not dynamically stable. The stability of the timelike thin shells with the Mannheim spacetime as the outer region is also investigated.     

Maximal hypersurfaces in stationary asymptotically flat spacetimes

Existence of maximal hypersurfaces and of foliations by maximal hypersurfaces is proven in two classes of asymptotically flat spacetimes which possess a one parameter group of isometries whose orbits are timelike near infinity.. The first class consists of strongly causal asymptotically flat spacetimes which contain no black hole or white hole (but may contain ergoregions where the Killing orbits fail to be timelike). The second class of spacetimes possess a black hole and a white hole, with the black and white hole horizons intersecting in a compact 2-surfaceS.Supported in part by KBN grant #2 1047 9101Supported in part by NSF grant PHY-8918388.     

Axiomatic renormalization of the stress tensor of a conformally invariant field in conformally flat spacetimes

Using only the general properties which the renormalized stress-energy tensor T_μν should satisfy—and not relying on any assumptions associated with specific renormalization techniques—we derive the expression for T_μν for conformally invariant fields in conformally flat spacetimes of two and four dimensions. In two dimensions, these arguments rederive the Davies-Fulling-Unruh expression for the stress tensor of a scalar field; in four dimensions the results agree with those of Brown and Cassidy, except that we exclude the local curvature term depending on fourth-order derivatives of the metric. The dynamics of a k = 0 Robertson-Walker universe filled with radiation of the conformally invariant field is investigated and it is found that the equations cease to admit a solution when the Planck density is reached.     

Solution of the stationary vacuum equations of relativity for conformally flat 3-spaces

The solution of Einstein's vacuum gravitational equations for stationary space—times with a conformally flat 3-space is presented. There is no other solution of this problem than the Ehlers-rotation generalizations of the three conformastat space—times including the Schwarzschild metric.     

Dissipative fluid in conformally flat space-time

We consider a conformally flat, inhomogeneous solution of the Einstein equations for a dissipative fluid. The production of entropy is found to depend on some arbitrary functions of time. By some subsidiary conditions, such a model is shown to evolve into a homogeneous Friedmann-type universe.     

Flag-dipole and flagpole spinor fluid flows in Kerr spacetimes

Flagpole and flag-dipole spinors are particular classes of spinor fields that has been recently used in different branches of theoretical physics. In this paper, we study the possibility and consequences of these spinor fields to induce an underlying fluid flow structure in the background of Kerr spacetimes. We show that flag-dipole spinor fields are solutions of the equations of motion in this context. To our knowledge, this is the second time that this class of spinor field appears as a physical solution, the first one occurring as a solution of the Dirac equation in ESK gravities.     

Kinemaitcs in spatially flat FLRW spacetimes

The kinematics on spatially flat FLRW spacetimes is presented for the first time in local charts with physical coordinates, i.e., the cosmic time and proper Cartesian space coordinates of Painlevé-type. It is shown that there exists a conserved momentum that determines the form of the covariant four-momentum on geodesics in terms of physical coordinates. Moreover, with the help of this conserved momentum, the peculiar momentum can be defined, thus separating the peculiar and recessional motions without ambiguity. It is shown that the energy and peculiar momentum satisfy the mass-shell condition of special relativity while the recessional momentum does not produce energy. In this framework, the measurements of the kinetic quantities along geodesics performed by different observers are analyzed, pointing out an energy loss of the massive particles similar to that producing the photon redshift. The examples of the kinematics on the de Sitter expanding universe and a new Milne-type spacetime are extensively analyzed.     

Meron and elliptic solutions in conformally flat space-time

The idea recently advanced by the author that particles arise as distortions of a riemannian background is pursued further. Such distortions represent conformally flat solutions of Einstein's “cosmological” equations extremely large “cosmological” constant. It is shown in particular that merons can be generated by perfect fluid or neutral superfluid distributions of energy and momentum. Perfect fluids can also generate elliptic plane waves of the type discussed by Petiau.     

On classification of conformally flat spaces

Classification of conformally flat n-dimensional pseudo-Riemannian spaces via Plebanski's method is discussed. It is based on embedding these spaces into a flat (n + 2)-dimensional space and on finding their minimal isometry groups which are subgroups of the conformal group. In particular, the case n = 4 is given in full detail and compared with incomplete results known in the literature. The found conformally flat spacetimes are identified with the associated solutions of the Einstein equations and with the spacetimes used in various cosmological considerations.     

Orthogonal decomposition of axi-symmetric stationary spacetimes

Zeitschrift für Physik A Hadrons and nuclei - We show that for a wide class of field equations the orbits of the isometry group defining axial symmetry and stationarity admit orthogonal...     

Long-range scalar field in conformally flat space-time

Consequences of a massless scalar field in conformally flat space-time are studied. Then a wide class of solutions of the scalar field is obtained.     

Extremally accelerated observers in stationary axisymmetric spacetimes

Stationary observers with the extremal value of the total thrust, considered in stationary axisymmetric spacetimes, have interesting privileges: they Fermi-transport their 4-acceleration, and those with zero vertical acceleration measure that the particles on local radially non-accelerated circular orbits co- and counter-rotate with the same modulus of velocity.     

Separable geodesic action slicing in stationary spacetimes

A simple observation about the action for geodesics in a stationary spacetime with separable geodesic equations leads to a natural class of slicings of that spacetime whose orthogonal geodesic trajectories represent the world lines of freely falling fiducial observers. The time coordinate function can then be taken to be the observer proper time, leading to a unit lapse function, although the time coordinate lines still follow Killing trajectories to retain the explicitly stationary nature of the coordinate grid. This explains some of the properties of the original Painlevé-Gullstrand coordinates on the Schwarzschild spacetime and their generalization to the Kerr-Newman family of spacetimes, reproducible also locally for the Gödel spacetime. For the static spherically symmetric case the slicing can be chosen to be intrinsically flat with spherically symmetric geodesic observers, leaving all the gravitational field information in the shift vector field.     

Existence of maximal surfaces in asymptotically flat spacetimes

We prove the existence of maximal surfaces in asymptotically flat spacetime satisfying an interior condition. This uses a priori estimates which can also be applied to prescribed mean curvature surfaces in cosmological spacetimes and the Dirichlet problem.     

Complete spacelike hypersurfaces in conformally stationary Lorentz manifolds

We derive, for the square operator of Yau, an analogue of the Omori–Yau maximum principle for the Laplacian. We then apply it to obtain nonexistence results concerning complete noncompact spacelike hypersurfaces immersed with constant higher order mean curvature in a conformally stationary Lorentz manifold.     

Spherically symmetric lightlike radiation and conformally flat space-times

The problem of the coexistence of spherical symmetry of a 3-space, tracelessness of the energy-momentum tensor, conformally flat 4-metrics, and the validity of the Einstein equations is investigated. The assertion is proved that when spherical symmetry is present nonequilibrium lightlike radiation with the energymomentum tensor T_µv = l _µ l _v (l v = 0) cannot serve as the source of the gravitational field corresponding to a conformally flat space-time (type 0 according to the algebraic classification). An exact spherically symmetric solution with a conformally flat metric is obtained which describes dust and equilibrium isotropic radiation without energy exchange between them. This solution is rewritten for a synchronous reference frame in which it is evident that it describes a homogeneous and isotropic universe. In the limit of the absence of radiation the solution changes into the well-known Friedmann solution for an open universe.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 7, pp. 32–35, July, 1984.In conclusion the authors express their gratitude to all the participants in the seminar of the gravitation section of the Scientific and Technical Council of Minvuz of the USSR (the physics faculty of Moscow State University) for a useful discussion of the results of this paper.     

Scalar field quantization in stationary,non-static spacetimes

A quantization procedure is given for the scalar field on stationary, axisymmetric background spacetimes with orthogonal 2-surfaces. The procedure is based on observers orthogonal to surfaces of constant Killing time, and thus agrees with the usual procedure for static spacetimes. For stationary but nonstatic spacetimes the procedure differs from the usual one but nonetheless leads to a natural quantization scheme. Applying the procedure to flat space in rotating coordinates gives the standard, inertial Minkowski vacuum. For the Kerr spacetime, the procedure yields a particle definition which is well-defined everywhere outside the horizon. The above observers are just nonrotating ZAMO's, and the vacuum state smoothly interpolates between the “in” and “out” Boulware vacua.