Curvature invariants in algebraically special spacetimes

It is well known that all curvature invariants of the order zero vanish for type-III and type-N vacuum spacetimes. We briefly summarize properties of higher order curvature invariants for these spacetimes.Comment: 2 pages, contribution to the 9th Marcel Grossmann meeting (MG9), Rome, July 200

Co-accelerated particles in the C-metric

With appropriately chosen parameters, the C-metric represents two uniformly accelerated black holes moving in the opposite directions on the axis of the axial symmetry (the z-axis). The acceleration is caused by nodal singularities located on the z-axis. In the~present paper, geodesics in the~C-metric are examined. In general there exist three types of timelike or null geodesics in the C-metric: geodesics describing particles 1) falling under the black hole horizon; 2)crossing the acceleration horizon; and 3) orbiting around the z-axis and co-accelerating with the black holes. Using an effective potential, it can be shown that there exist stable timelike geodesics of the third type if the product of the parameters of the C-metric, mA, is smaller than a certain critical value. Null geodesics of the third type are always unstable. Special timelike and null geodesics of the third type are also found in an analytical form.Comment: 10 pages, 12 EPS figures, changes mainly in abstract & introductio

Accelerating Kerr-Newman black holes in (anti-)de Sitter space-time

A class of exact solutions of the Einstein-Maxwell equations is presented which describes an accelerating and rotating charged black hole in an asymptotically de Sitter or anti-de Sitter universe. The metric is presented in a new and convenient form in which the meaning of the parameters is clearly identified, and from which the physical properties of the solution can readily be interpreted.Comment: 5 pages. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Boost-rotation symmetric vacuum spacetimes with spinning sources

Boost-rotation symmetric vacuum spacetimes with spinning sources which correspond to gravitational field of uniformly accelerated spinning "particles" are studied. Regularity conditions and asymptotic properties are analyzed. News functions are derived by transforming the general spinning boost-rotation symmetric vacuum metric to Bondi-Sachs coordinates.Comment: REVTeX 4, 9 page

On the algebraic classification of spacetimes

We briefly overview the Petrov classification in four dimensions and its generalization to higher dimensions.Comment: Submitted to Journal of Physics, conference series, proceedings of 4th meeting on constrained dynamics and quantum gravity, 12-16 September 2005, Sardinia, Ital

Ricci identities in higher dimensions

We explore connections between geometrical properties of null congruences and the algebraic structure of the Weyl tensor in n>4 spacetime dimensions. First, we present the full set of Ricci identities on a suitable "null" frame, thus completing the extension of the Newman-Penrose formalism to higher dimensions. Then we specialize to geodetic null congruences and study specific consequences of the Sachs equations. These imply, for example, that Kundt spacetimes are of type II or more special (like for n=4) and that for odd n a twisting geodetic WAND must also be shearing (in contrast to the case n=4).Comment: 8 pages. v2: typo corrected between Propositions 2 and 3. v3: typo in the last term in the first line of (11f) corrected, missing term on the r.h.s. of (11p) added, first sentence between Propositions 2 and 3 slightly change

Global aspects of accelerating and rotating black hole space-times

The complete family of exact solutions representing accelerating and rotating black holes with possible electromagnetic charges and a NUT parameter is known in terms of a modified Plebanski-Demianski metric. This demonstrates the singularity and horizon structure of the sources but not that the complete space-time describes two causally separated black holes. To demonstrate this property, the metric is first cast in the Weyl-Lewis-Papapetrou form. After extending this up to the acceleration horizon, it is then transformed to the boost-rotation-symmetric form in which the global properties of the solution are manifest. The physical interpretation of these solutions is thus clarified.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure. To appear in Class. Quantum Gra

Bianchi identities in higher dimensions

A higher dimensional frame formalism is developed in order to study implications of the Bianchi identities for the Weyl tensor in vacuum spacetimes of the algebraic types III and N in arbitrary dimension $n$. It follows that the principal null congruence is geodesic and expands isotropically in two dimensions and does not expand in $n-4$ spacelike dimensions or does not expand at all. It is shown that the existence of such principal geodesic null congruence in vacuum (together with an additional condition on twist) implies an algebraically special spacetime. We also use the Myers-Perry metric as an explicit example of a vacuum type D spacetime to show that principal geodesic null congruences in vacuum type D spacetimes do not share this property.Comment: 25 pages, v3: Corrections to Appendix B as given in Erratum-ibid.24:1691,2007 are now incorporated (A factor of 2 was missing in certain Bianchi equations.

Note on Invariants of the Weyl Tensor

Algebraically special gravitational fields are described using algebraic and differential invariants of the Weyl tensor. A type III invariant is also given and calculated for Robinson-Trautman spaces.Comment: 3 pages, no figures, corrected expression (12