6533b7dbfe1ef96bd1270018

RESEARCH PRODUCT

On the geometry of Killing and conformal tensors

Joan Josep FerrandoBartolomé CollJuan Antonio Sáez

subject

PhysicsGeodesicGeneralizationFOS: Physical sciencesStatistical and Nonlinear PhysicsConformal mapGeneral Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)Type (model theory)General Relativity and Quantum CosmologyGeneral Relativity and Quantum CosmologyQuadratic equationHomogeneous spaceTensorMathematical PhysicsEigenvalues and eigenvectorsMathematical physics

description

The second order Killing and conformal tensors are analyzed in terms of their spectral decomposition, and some properties of the eigenvalues and the eigenspaces are shown. When the tensor is of type I with only two different eigenvalues, the condition to be a Killing or a conformal tensor is characterized in terms of its underlying almost-product structure. A canonical expression for the metrics admitting these kinds of symmetries is also presented. The space-time cases 1+3 and 2+2 are analyzed in more detail. Starting from this approach to Killing and conformal tensors a geometric interpretation of some results on quadratic first integrals of the geodesic equation in vacuum Petrov-Bel type D solutions is offered. A generalization of these results to a wider family of type D space-times is also obtained. A generalization of these results to a wider family of type D space-times is also obtained.

yearjournalcountryeditionlanguage
2006-01-26Journal of Mathematical Physics
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2207717