English

Pseudo-Riemannian VSI spaces

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2010-12-17 v1 High Energy Physics - Theory Mathematical Physics math.MP

Abstract

In this paper we consider pseudo-Riemannian spaces of arbitrary signature for which all of their polynomial curvature invariants vanish (VSI spaces). We discuss an algebraic classification of pseudo-Riemannian spaces in terms of the boost weight decomposition and define the Si{\bf S}_i- and N{\bf N}-properties, and show that if the curvature tensors of the space possess the N{\bf N}-property then it is a VSI space. We then use this result to construct a set of metrics that are VSI. All of the VSI spaces constructed possess a geodesic, expansion-free, shear-free, and twist-free null-congruence. We also discuss the related Walker metrics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1008.2838,
  title  = {Pseudo-Riemannian VSI spaces},
  author = {Sigbjorn Hervik and Alan Coley},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1008.2838},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

14 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-21T16:01:45.835Z