The spacetime geometry of a null electromagnetic field

Authors

Charles G. Torre, Utah State UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Classical and Quantum Gravity

Volume

31

Issue

4

Publication Date

2-2014

Abstract

We give a set of local geometric conditions on a spacetime metric which are necessary and sufficient for it to be a null electrovacuum, that is, the metric is part of a solution to the Einstein-Maxwell equations with a nullelectromagnetic field. These conditions are restrictions on a null congruence canonically constructed from the spacetime metric, and can involve up to five derivatives of the metric. The null electrovacuum conditions are counterparts of the Rainich conditions, which geometrically characterize non-null electrovacua. Given aspacetime satisfying the conditions for a null electrovacuum, a straightforward procedure builds the nullelectromagnetic field from the metric. Null electrovacuum geometry is illustrated using some pure radiation spacetimes taken from the literature.

Comments

Published by Institute of Physics in Classical and Quantum Gravity. Author post print is available for download through link above.

Recommended Citation

C G Torre. (2014). The spacetime geometry of a null electromagnetic field. Classical and Quantum Gravity, 31(4), 045022.