An equation satisfied by the tangent to a shear-free, geodesic, null congruence
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: An equation satisfied by the tangent to a shear-free, geodesic, null congruence
zbMATH Open document ID: 0623.53010
DOI: 10.1007/BF00401156
author: P. A. Hogan
published in: Letters in Mathematical Physics
publication date: 1987-01-01T00:00:00Z
review text: The author presents a tensor equation which is satisfied by the tangent vector of a shear-free null geodesic congruence in general relativity. If the congruence is neither twist-free nor expansion-free, it is shown that this equation defines a second unique null direction. The consequences of this result are discussed and shown to be related to questions involving the construction of exact solutions of the Einstein equations.
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 53B30
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 53B50
zbMATH DE Number: 4011360
zbMATH Keywords: geometry of congruences
zbMATH Keywords: shear-free null geodesic congruence
zbMATH Keywords: Einstein equations
reviewed by: Joseph D. Zund
MaRDI profile type: Publication
cites work: Conformal geometry of flows in n dimensions
cites work: Properties of shear-free congruences of null geodesics
cites work: On the Robinson theorem and shearfree geodesic null congruences
full work available at URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00401156
OpenAlex ID: W1979369312
description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4011360