The Generalized Good Cut Equation

Abstract

The properties of null geodesic congruences (NGCs) in Lorentzian manifolds are a topic of considerable importance. More specifically NGCs with the special property of being shear-free or asymptotically shear-free (as either infinity or a horizon is approached) have received a great deal of recent attention for a variety of reasons. Such congruences are most easily studied via solutions to what has been referred to as the 'good cut equation' or the 'generalization good cut equation'. It is the purpose of this note to study these equations and show their relationship to each other. In particular we show how they all have a four complex dimensional manifold (known as H-space, or in a special case as complex Minkowski space) as a solution space.Comment: 12 page