Gravitational Instantons and special geometry

The Chen-Teo gravitational instanton is an asymptotically flat, toric, Ricci flat family of metrics on $\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^2\setminus S^1$, that provides a counterexample to the classical Euclidean Black Hole Uniqueness conjecture. In this paper we show that the Chen-Teo instanton is Hermitian and non-K\"ahler. It follows that all known examples of gravitational instantons are Hermitian

Kaehler geometry of black holes and gravitational instantons

We obtain a closed formula for the Kaehler potential of a broad class of four-dimensional Lorentzian or Euclidean conformal "Kaehler" geometries, including the Plebanski-Demianski class and various gravitational instantons such as Fubini-Study and Chen-Teo. We show that the Kaehler potentials of Schwarzschild and Kerr are related by a Newman-Janis shift. Our method also shows that a class of supergravity black holes, including the Kerr-Sen spacetime, is Hermitian (but not conformal Kaehler). We finally show that the integrability conditions of complex structures lead naturally to the (non-linear) Weyl double copy, and we give new vacuum and non-vacuum examples of this relation

On the geometry of Petrov type II spacetimes

In general, geometries of Petrov type II do not admit symmetries in terms of Killing vectors or spinors. We introduce a weaker form of Killing equations which do admit solutions. In particular, there is an analog of the Penrose-Walker Killing spinor. Some of its properties, including associated conservation laws, are discussed. Perturbations of Petrov type II Einstein geometries in terms of a complex scalar Debye potential yield complex solutions to the linearized Einstein equations. The complex linearized Weyl tensor is shown to be half Petrov type N. The remaining curvature component on the algebraically special side is reduced to a first order differential operator acting on the potential

Linearized gravity and gauge conditions

In this paper we consider the field equations for linearized gravity and other integer spin fields on the Kerr spacetime, and more generally on spacetimes of Petrov type D. We give a derivation, using the GHP formalism, of decoupled field equations for the linearized Weyl scalars for all spin weights and identify the gauge source functions occuring in these. For the spin weight 0 Weyl scalar, imposing a generalized harmonic coordinate gauge yields a generalization of the Regge-Wheeler equation. Specializing to the Schwarzschild case, we derive the gauge invariant Regge-Wheeler and Zerilli equation directly from the equation for the spin 0 scalar.Comment: 24 pages, corresponds to published versio

The perturbation theory of higher dimensional spacetimes a la Teukolsky

We consider the possibility of deriving a decoupled equation in terms of Weyl tensor components for gravitational perturbations of the Schwarzschild-Tangherlini solution. We find a particular gauge invariant component of the Weyl tensor does decouple and argue that this corresponds to the vector modes of Ishibashi and Kodama. Also, we construct a Hertz potential map for solutions of the electromagnetic and gravitational perturbation equations of a higher dimensional Kundt background using the decoupled equation of Durkee and Reall. Motivated by recent work of Guica and Strominger, we use this to construct the asymptotic behaviour of metric perturbations of the near-horizon geometry of the 5d cohomogeneity-1 Myers-Perry black hole

Gauge-invariant perturbations of Schwarzschild spacetime

We study perturbations of Schwarzschild spacetime in a coordinate-free, covariant form. The GHP formulation, having the advantage of not only being covariant but also tetrad-rotation invariant, is used to write down the previously known odd- and even-parity gauge-invariants and the equations they satisfy. Additionally, in the even-parity sector, a new invariant and the second order hyperbolic equation it satisfies are presented. Chandrasekhar's work on transformations of solutions for perturbation equations on Schwarzschild spacetime is translated into the GHP form, i.e., solutions for the equations of the even- and odd-parity invariants are written in terms of one another, and the extreme Weyl scalars; and solutions for the equations of these latter invariants are also written in terms of one another. Recently, further gauge invariants previously used by Steven Detweiler have been described. His method is translated into GHP form and his basic invariants are presented here. We also show how these invariants can be written in terms of curvature invariants