Related papers: On a five-dimensional version of the Goldberg-Sach…
We study a generalization of the "shear-free part" of the Goldberg-Sachs theorem for Einstein spacetimes admitting a non-twisting multiple Weyl Aligned Null Direction (WAND) l in n>=6 spacetime dimensions. The form of the corresponding…
In more than four spacetime dimensions, a multiple Weyl-aligned null direction (WAND) need not be geodesic. It is proved that any higher-dimensional Einstein spacetime admitting a non-geodesic multiple WAND also admits a geodesic multiple…
Vacuum solutions admitting a hypersurface-orthogonal repeated principal null direction are an important class of 4d algebraically special spacetimes. We investigate the 5d analogues of such solutions: vacuum spacetimes admitting a…
We prove that higher dimensional Einstein spacetimes which possess a geodesic, non-degenerate double Weyl aligned null direction (WAND) $\ell$ must additionally possess a second double WAND (thus being of type D) if either: (a) the Weyl…
Einstein spacetimes in 5d that are of genuine type II in the null alignment classification are considered. It is shown that the unique geodesic multiple Weyl aligned null direction (mWAND) cannot have an optical matrix of rank 1 or 3. This…
The Sachs equations governing the evolution of the optical matrix of geodetic WANDs (Weyl aligned null directions) are explicitly solved in n-dimensions in several cases which are of interest in potential applications. This is then used to…
Optical (or Robinson) structures are one generalisation of four-dimensional shearfree congruences of null geodesics to higher dimensions. They are Lorentzian analogues of complex and CR structures. In this context, we extend the…
General properties of Kerr-Schild spacetimes with (A)dS background in arbitrary dimension are studied. It is shown that the geodetic Kerr-Schild vector k is a multiple WAND of the spacetime. Einstein Kerr-Schild spacetimes with…
Algebraic classification of higher dimensional, shear-free, twist-free, expanding (or non-expanding) spacetime is studied with the limit of $D\rightarrow\infty$. Similar to classification of any arbitrary dimension $D>4$, this spacetime is…
We present an algebraic classification, based on the null alignment properties of the Weyl tensor, of the general Kundt class of spacetimes in arbitrary dimension for which the non-expanding, non-twisting, shear-free null direction \boldk…
Vacuum spacetimes admitting a non-twisting geodetic multiple Weyl aligned null direction (WAND) are analyzed in arbitrary dimension using recently developed higher-dimensional Newman-Penrose (NP) formalism. We determine dependence of the…
The Goldberg-Sachs theorem is generalized for all four-dimensional manifolds endowed with torsion-free connection compatible with the metric, the treatment includes all signatures as well as complex manifolds. It is shown that when the Weyl…
We study the geometrical properties of null congruences generated by an aligned null direction of the Weyl tensor (WAND) in spacetimes of the Weyl and Ricci type N (possibly with a non-vanishing cosmological constant) in an arbitrary…
We analyze asymptotic properties of higher-dimensional vacuum spacetimes admitting a "non-degenerate" geodetic multiple WAND. After imposing a fall-off condition necessary for asymptotic flatness, we determine the behaviour of the Weyl…
We investigate the Weyl tensor algebraic structure of a fully general family of D-dimensional geometries that admit a non-twisting and shear-free null vector field k. From the coordinate components of the curvature tensor we explicitly…
We present the complete family of higher dimensional spacetimes that admit a geodesic, shearfree, twistfree and expanding null congruence, thus extending the well-known D=4 class of Robinson-Trautman solutions. Einstein's equations are…
We study the class of generalized Kerr-Schild (GKS) spacetimes in dimensions $n\geq 3$ and analyze their geometric and algebraic properties in a completely theory-independent setting. First, considering the case of a general null vector…
The Goldberg-Sachs theorem is an exact result on shear-free null geodesics in a vacuum spacetime. It is compared and contrasted with an exact result for pressure-free matter: shear-free flows cannot both expand and rotate. In both cases,…
We study a class of higher dimensional warped Einstein spacetimes with one extra dimension. These were originally identified by Brinkmann as those Einstein spacetimes that can be mapped conformally on other Einstein spacetimes, and have…
An extension to higher dimensions of the Bel-Debever characterization of the Weyl tensor is considered. This provides algebraic conditions that uniquely determine the multiplicity of a Weyl aligned null direction (WAND), and thus the…