The Bach equations in spin-coefficient form

Abstract

Conformal gravity theories are defined by field equations that determine only the conformal structure of the spacetime manifold. The Bach equations represent an early example of such a theory, we present them here in component form in terms of spin- and boost-weighted spin-coefficients using the compacted spin-coefficient formalism. These equations can be used as an efficient alternative to the standard tensor form. As a simple application we solve the Bach equations for pp-wave and static spherically symmetric spacetimes.