Constructing the CKVs of Bianchi III and V spacetimes

Abstract

We determine the conformal algebra of Bianchi III and Bianchi V spacetimes or, equivalently, we determine all Bianchi III and Bianchi V spacetimes which admit a proper conformal Killing vector (CKV). The algorithm that we use has been developed in [M. Tsamparlis et al.Class. Quantum. Grav. 15, 2909 (1998)] and concerns the computation of the CKVs of decomposable spacetimes. The main point of this method is that a decomposable space admits a CKV if the reduced space admits a gradient homothetic vector, the latter being possible only if the reduced space is flat or a space of constant curvature. We apply this method in a stepwise manner starting from the two-dimensional spacetime which admits an infinite number of CKVs and we construct step by step the Bianchi III and V spacetimes by assuming that CKVs survive as we increase the dimension of the space. We find that there is only one Bianchi III and one Bianchi V spacetime which admit at maximum one proper CKV. In each case, we determine the CKV and the corresponding conformal factor. As a first application in these two spacetimes, we study the kinematics of the comoving observers and the dynamics of the corresponding cosmological fluid. As a second application, we determine in these spacetimes generators of the Lie symmetries of the wave equation.