Published July 7, 2007 | Version v1
Journal article

The Chevreton tensor and Einstein-Maxwell spacetimes conformal to Einstein spaces

  • 1. Matematiska Institutionen, Linkoepings Universitet, SE-581 83 Linkoeping (Sweden)

Description

In this paper, we characterize the source-free Einstein-Maxwell spacetimes which have a trace-free Chevreton tensor. We show that this is equivalent to the Chevreton tensor being of pure radiation type and that it restricts the spacetimes to Petrov type N or O. We prove that the trace of the Chevreton tensor is related to the Bach tensor and use this to find all Einstein-Maxwell spacetimes with a zero cosmological constant that have a vanishing Bach tensor. Among these spacetimes we then look for those which are conformal to Einstein spaces. We find that the electromagnetic field and the Weyl tensor must be aligned, and in the case that the electromagnetic field is null, the spacetime must be conformally Ricci-flat and all such solutions are known. In the non-null case, since the general solution is not known on a closed form, we settle by giving the integrability conditions in the general case, but we do give new explicit examples of Einstein-Maxwell spacetimes that are conformal to Einstein spaces, and we also find examples where the vanishing of the Bach tensor does not imply that the spacetime is conformal to a C-space. The non-aligned Einstein-Maxwell spacetimes with vanishing Bach tensor are conformally C-spaces, but none of them are conformal to Einstein spaces

Additional details

Identifiers

DOI
10.1088/0264-9381/24/13/018;
PII
S0264-9381(07)46123-8;

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Classical and Quantum Gravity
Journal Volume
24
Journal Issue
13
Journal Page Range
p. 3437-3455
ISSN
0264-9381
CODEN
CQGRDG

INIS

Country of Publication
United Kingdom
Country of Input or Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
INIS RN
38083339
Subject category
S72: PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS;
Descriptors DEI
COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT; COSMOLOGY; ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS; MATHEMATICAL SOLUTIONS; QUANTUM FIELD THEORY; SPACE; SPACE-TIME; TENSORS; WEYL UNIFIED THEORY
Descriptors DEC
FIELD THEORIES; UNIFIED-FIELD THEORIES