Symmetries of Type N Pure Radiation Fields

Abstract

The geometrical symmetries corresponding to the continuous groups of collineations and motions generated by a null vector l are considered. These symmetries have been translated into the language of Newman-Penrose formalism for pure radiation (PR) type N fields. It is seen that for such fields, conformal, special conformal and homothetic motions degenerate to motion. The concept of free curvature, matter curvature and matter affine collineations have been discussed and the conditions under which PR type N fields admit such collineations have been obtained. Moreover, it is shown that the projective collineation degenerate to matter affine, special projective, conformal, special conformal, null geodesic and special null geodesic collineations. It is also seen that type N pure radiation fields admit Maxwell collineation along the propagation vector l.