Spin coefficients and gauge fixing in the Newman-Penrose formalism
Abstract
Since its introduction in 1962, the Newman-Penrose formalism has been widely used in analytical and numerical studies of Einstein's equations, like for example for the Teukolsky master equation, or as a powerful wave extraction tool in numerical relativity. Despite the many applications, Einstein's equations in the Newman-Penrose formalism appear complicated and not easily applicable to general studies of spacetimes, mainly because physical and gauge degrees of freedom are mixed in a nontrivial way. In this paper we approach the whole formalism with the goal of expressing the spin coefficients as functions of tetrad invariants once a particular tetrad is chosen. We show that it is possible to do so, and give for the first time a general recipe for the task, as well as an indication of the quantities and identities that are required.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1609.04037,
title = {Spin coefficients and gauge fixing in the Newman-Penrose formalism},
author = {Andrea Nerozzi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.04037},
year = {2017}
}
Comments
12 pages, to match version published in PRD