On the construction of global models describing rotating bodies; uniqueness of the exterior gravitational field

The problem of constructing global models describing isolated axially symmetric rotating bodies in equilibrium is analyzed. It is claimed that, whenever the global spacetime is constructed by giving boundary data on the limiting surface of the body and integrating Einstein's equations both inside and ouside the body, the problem becomes overdetermined. Similarly, when the spacetime describing the interior of the body is explicitly given,the problem of finding the exterior vacuum solution becomes overdetermined. We discuss in detail the procedure to be followed in order to construct the exterior vacuum field created by a given but arbitrary distribution of matter. Finally, the uniqueness of the exterior vacuum gravitational field is proven by exploiting the harmonic map formulation of the vacuum equations and the boundary conditions prescribed from the matching.Comment: Latex, 10 pages, no figure

Singularity theorems based on trapped submanifolds of arbitrary co-dimension

Standard singularity theorems are proven in Lorentzian manifolds of arbitrary dimension n if they contain closed trapped submanifolds of arbitrary co-dimension. By using the mean curvature vector to characterize trapped submanifolds, a unification of the several possibilities for the boundary conditions in the traditional theorems and their generalization to arbitrary co-dimension is achieved. The classical convergence conditions must be replaced by a condition on sectional curvatures, or tidal forces, which reduces to the former in the cases of co-dimension 1, 2 or n.Comment: 11 pages, no figures, some corrections

Investigation of all Ricci semi-symmetric and all conformally semi-symmetric spacetimes

We find all Ricci semi-symmetric as well as all conformally semi-symmetric spacetimes. Neither of these properties implies the other. We verify that only conformally flat spacetimes can be Ricci semi-symmetric without being conformally semi-symmetric and show that only vacuum spacetimes and spacetimes with just a $\Lambda$-term can be Ricci semi-symmetric without being conformally semi-symmetric.Comment: 4 pages, 1 tabl

Conserved Matter Superenergy Currents for Hypersurface Orthogonal Killing Vectors

We show that for hypersurface orthogonal Killing vectors, the corresponding Chevreton superenergy currents will be conserved and proportional to the Killing vectors. This holds for four-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell spacetimes with an electromagnetic field that is sourcefree and inherits the symmetry of the spacetime. A similar result also holds for the trace of the Chevreton tensor. The corresponding Bel currents have previously been proven to be conserved and our result can be seen as giving further support to the concept of conserved mixed superenergy currents. The analogous case for a scalar field has also previously been proven to give conserved currents and we show, for completeness, that these currents also are proportional to the Killing vectors.Comment: 13 page