Null Killing Vector Research Articles

Rotating AdS3× S3 and dyonic strings from 3-dimensions

We make a general Killing spinor analysis of a particular D = 3, N = 4 gauged supergravity that comes from a consistent S3 reduction of D = 6, N = (1, 0) supergravity coupled to a single chiral tensor multiplet. We then focus on its supersymmetric solutions with a null Killing vector and find three new ones. Two of these, namely the null warped AdS3 (also known as the Schrödinger spacetime) and the charged domain wall solutions, admit non-trivial gauge fields which give rise to rotating solutions in 6-dimensions. The uplift of the first one produces an interesting AdS3 × S3 background with a non-trivial rotation in the U(1) fiber direction of the S3 which retains the Schrödinger scale invariance that the seed solution has. The second one leads to the well-known rotating dyonic string solution. Finally, the uplift of the third one, which is a domain wall solution with no gauge fields, results in a distribution of dyonic strings.

Thermodynamics of Taub-NUT and Plebanski solutions

We observe the parallel between the null Killing vector on the horizon and degenerate Killing vectors at both north and south poles in Kerr-Taub-NUT and general Plebanski solutions. This suggests a correspondence between the pairs of the angular momentum/velocity and the NUT charge/potential. We treat the time as a real line such that the Misner strings are physical. We find that the NUT charge spreads along the Misner strings, analogous to that the mass in the Schwarzschild black hole sits at its spacetime singularity. We develop procedures to calculate all the thermodynamic quantities and we find that the results are consistent with the first law (Wald formalism), the Euclidean action and the Smarr relation. We also apply the Wald formalism, the Euclidean action approach, and the (generalized) Komar integration to the electric and magnetic black holes in a class of EMD theories, and also to boosted black strings and Kaluza-Klein monopoles in five dimensions, to gain better understandings of how to deal with the subtleties associated with Dirac and Misner strings.

Light-cone quantization of scalar field on time-dependent backgrounds

We discuss what is light-cone quantization on a curved spacetime also without a null Killing vector. Then we consider as an example the light-cone quantization of a scalar field on a background with a Killing vector and the connection with the second quantization of the particle in the same background. It turns out that the proper way to define the light-cone quantization is to require that the constant light-cone time hypersurface is null or, equivalently, that the particle Hamiltonian is free of square roots. Moreover, in order to quantize the scalar theory it is necessary to use not the original scalar rather a scalar field density, i.e. the Schrödinger wave functional depends on a scalar density and not on the original field. Finally we recover this result as the second quantization of a particle on the same background, where it is necessary to add as input the fact that we are dealing with a scalar density.

Null-dimensional reduction of M2-brane

In this paper, we perform a general reduction of an M2-brane on a space–time that admits a null Killing vector leading to fundamental string and D2-brane action in Newton–Cartan background.

Rotating black holes in general relativity coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics

We find an exact spherically symmetric magnetically charged black hole solution to general relativity (GR) coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics (NED) with an appropriate Lagrangian density. In turn, starting with this spherical black hole as a seed metric, we construct a rotating spacetime, a modification of Kerr black hole, using the revised Newman–Janis algorithm that depends on mass, spin, and a NED parameter g. We find an exact expression for thermodynamic quantities of the black holes like the mass, Hawking temperature, entropy, heat capacity, and free energy expressed in terms of horizon radius, and they show significant deviations from the Kerr case owing to NED. We also calculate analytical expressions for effective Komar mass and angular momentum for the rotating black hole and demonstrate that the Komar conserved quantity corresponding to the null Killing vector at horizon obeys Kχ=2S+T+. The radiating counterpart renders a generalization of Carmeli’s spacetime as well as Vaidya’s spacetime in the appropriate limits.

Connecting and Closed Geodesics of a Kropina Metric

Abstract We prove some results about existence of connecting and closed geodesics in a manifold endowed with a Kropina metric. These have applications to both null geodesics of spacetimes endowed with a null Killing vector field and Zermelo’s navigation problem with critical wind.

Doubly torqued vectors and a classification of doubly twisted and Kundt spacetimes

The simple structure of doubly torqued vectors allows for a natural characterization of doubly twisted down to warped spacetimes, as well as Kundt spacetimes down to PP waves. For the first ones the vectors are timelike, for the others they are null. We also discuss some properties, and their connection to hypersurface orthogonal conformal Killing vectors, and null Killing vectors.

Null reductions of the M5-brane

We perform a general reduction of an M5-brane on a spacetime that admits a null Killing vector, including couplings to background 4-form fluxes and possible twisting of the normal bundle. We give the non-abelian extension of this action and present its supersymmetry transformations. The result is a class of supersymmetric non-Lorentzian gauge theories in 4+1 dimensions, which depend on the geometry of the six-dimensional spacetime. These can be used for DLCQ constructions of M5-branes reduced on various manifolds.

Sigma models with local couplings: a new integrability-RG flow connection

We consider several classes of σ-models (on groups and symmetric spaces, η-models, ⋋-models) with local couplings that may depend on the 2d coordinates, e.g. on time τ . We observe that (i) starting with a classically integrable 2d σ-model, (ii) formally promoting its couplings hα to functions hα(τ ) of 2d time, and (iii) demanding that the resulting time-dependent model also admits a Lax connection implies that hα(τ ) must solve the 1-loop RG equations of the original theory with τ interpreted as RG time. This provides a novel example of an ‘integrability-RG flow’ connection. The existence of a Lax connection suggests that these time-dependent σ-models may themselves be understood as integrable. We investigate this question by studying the possibility of constructing non-local and local conserved charges. Such σ-models with D-dimensional target space and time-dependent couplings subject to the RG flow naturally appear in string theory upon fixing the light-cone gauge in a (D + 2)-dimensional conformal σ-model with a metric admitting a covariantly constant null Killing vector and a dilaton linear in the null coordinate.

Effective field theory for non-relativistic hydrodynamics

We write down a Schwinger-Keldysh effective field theory for non-relativistic (Galilean) hydrodynamics. We use the null background construction to covariantly couple Galilean field theories to a set of background sources. In this language, Galilean hydrodynamics gets recast as relativistic hydrodynamics formulated on a one dimension higher spacetime admitting a null Killing vector. This allows us to import the existing field theoretic techniques for relativistic hydrodynamics into the Galilean setting, with minor modifications to include the additional background vector field. We use this formulation to work out an interacting field theory describing stochastic fluctuations of energy, momentum, and density modes around thermal equilibrium. We also present a translation of our results to the more conventional Newton-Cartan language, and discuss how the same can be derived via a non-relativistic limit of the effective field theory for relativistic hydrodynamics.

Vacuum gravitational fields with a null Killing vector

Vacuum gravitational fields admitting a light-like Killing field were systematically studied starting around 1960. Besides the already known plane waves, a second class of gravitational wave fields was found. In contrast to plane waves, their wave surfaces were not flat, but had a negative Gaussian curvature. Recently, such solutions found attention again as "twisted gravitational waves". In the paper we review and extend the earlier results. In suitable coordinates, the metric assumes a simple shape. The waves are then determined by a single function that satisfies a Laplace equation in cylindrical coordinates. The "twisted waves" prove to be a special case.

Petrov type-N solution for the null-surface formulation in $$2+1$$ dimensions

A nontrivial solution of the field equations of the null-surface formulation in $$3+1$$ dimensions has not, as yet, been found and, even in $$2+1$$ dimensions, the field equations are extremely difficult to solve. Only two nontrivial solutions in $$2+1$$ dimensions have previously been found and this work presents a third (exact) solution. It differs markedly from the two earlier solutions not only in its functional nature (parametric, as opposed to explicit or implicit) but also in its Petrov type and the physical nature of the source term. The solution is expressed in terms of elementary functions and has positive non-constant scalar curvature. The spacetime has a curvature singularity and the source of the gravitational field can be interpreted as a minimally coupled scalar field with a Liouville potential. The strong energy condition is violated but all of the other energy conditions hold. There is a congruence of null geodesic Killing vectors with the expansion, shear, and vorticity scalars all being zero.

A generalised Garfinkle–Vachaspati transform

The Garfinkle-Vachaspati transform is a deformation of a metric in terms of a null, hypersurface orthogonal, Killing vector $k^\mu$. We explore a generalisation of this deformation in type IIB supergravity taking motivation from certain studies of the D1-D5 system. We consider solutions of minimal six-dimensional supergravity admitting null Killing vector $k^\mu$ trivially lifted to type IIB supergravity by the addition of four-torus directions. The torus directions provide covariantly constant spacelike vectors $l^\mu$. We show that the original solution can be deformed as $g_{\mu \nu} \to g_{\mu \nu} + 2 \Phi k_{(\mu}l_{\nu)}, C_{\mu \nu} \to C_{\mu \nu} - 2 \Phi k_{[\mu}l_{\nu]}$, provided the two-form supporting the original spacetime satisfies $i_k (dC) = - d k$, and where $\Phi$ satisfies the equation of a minimal massless scalar field on the original spacetime. We show that the condition $i_k (dC) = - d k$ is satisfied by all supersymmetric solutions admitting null Killing vector. Hence all supersymmetric solutions of minimal six-dimensional supergravity can be deformed via this method. As an example of our approach, we work out the deformation on a class of D1-D5-P geometries with orbifolds. We show that the deformed spacetimes are smooth and identify their CFT description. Using Bena-Warner formalism, we also express the deformed solutions in other duality frames.

A class of integrable metrics. II.

Starting with a subclass of the four-dimensional spaces possessing two commuting Killing vectors and a non-trivial Killing tensor, we fully integrate Einstein's vacuum equation with a cosmological constant. Although most of the solutions happen to be already known, we have found a solution that, as far as we could search for, has not been attained before. We also characterize the geometric properties of this new solution, it is a Kundt spacetime of Petrov type II possessing a null Killing vector field and an isometry algebra that is three-dimensional and abelian. In particular, such solution becomes a pp-wave spacetime when the cosmological constant is set to zero.

Supersymmetric solutions of N=(1,1) general massive supergravity

We construct supersymmetric solutions of three dimensional N = (1,1) General Massive Supergravity (GMG). Solutions with a null Killing vector are in general pp-waves. We identify those that appear at critical points of the model some of which do not exist in N = (1,1) New Massive Supergravity (NMG). In the timelike case, we find that many solutions are common with NMG but there is a new class that is genuine to GMG, two members of which are stationary Lifshitz and timelike squashed AdS spacetimes. We also show that in addition to the fully supersymmetric AdS vacuum, there is a second AdS background with a non-zero vector field that preserves 1/4 supersymmetry.

CCNV Space-Times as Potential Supergravity Solutions

It is of interest to study supergravity solutions preserving a nonminimal fraction of supersymmetries. A necessary condition for supersymmetry to be preserved is that the space-time admits a Killing spinor and hence a null or time-like Killing vector field. Any space-time admitting a covariantly constant null vector (CCNV) field belongs to the Kundt class of metrics and more importantly admits a null Killing vector field. We investigate the existence of additional non-space-like isometries in the class of higher-dimensional CCNV Kundt metrics in order to produce potential solutions that preserve some supersymmetries.

The Birkhoff theorem and string clouds

We consider spherically symmetric space–times in GR under the unconventional assumptions that the spherical radius r is either a constant or has a null gradient in the (t, x) subspace orthogonal to the symmetry spheres (i.e., ). It is shown that solutions to the Einstein equations with contain an extra (fourth) spatial or temporal Killing vector and thus satisfy the Birkhoff theorem under an additional physically motivated condition that the tangential pressure is functionally related to the energy density. This leads to solutions that directly generalize the Bertotti–Robinson, Nariai and Plebanski–Hacyan solutions. Under similar conditions, solutions with but , supported by an anisotropic fluid, contain a null Killing vector, which again indicates a Birkhoff-like behavior. Similar space–times supported by pure radiation (in particular, a massless radiative scalar field) contain a null Killing vector without additional assumptions, which leads to one more extension of the Birkhoff theorem. Exact radial wave solutions have been found (i) with an anisotropic fluid and (ii) with a gas of radially directed cosmic strings (or a ‘string cloud’) combined with pure radiation. Furthermore, it is shown that a perfect fluid with isotropic pressure and a massive or self-interacting scalar field cannot be sources of gravitational fields with a null but nonzero gradient of r.

Eisenhart lifts and symmetries of time-dependent systems

Certain dissipative systems, such as Caldirola and Kannai’s damped simple harmonic oscillator, may be modelled by time-dependent Lagrangian and hence time dependent Hamiltonian systems with n degrees of freedom. In this paper we treat these systems, their projective and conformal symmetries as well as their quantisation from the point of view of the Eisenhart lift to a Bargmann spacetime in n+2 dimensions, equipped with its covariantly constant null Killing vector field. Reparametrisation of the time variable corresponds to conformal rescalings of the Bargmann metric. We show how the Arnold map lifts to Bargmann spacetime. We contrast the greater generality of the Caldirola–Kannai approach with that of Arnold and Bateman. At the level of quantum mechanics, we are able to show how the relevant Schrödinger equation emerges naturally using the techniques of quantum field theory in curved spacetimes, since a covariantly constant null Killing vector field gives rise to well defined one particle Hilbert space.Time-dependent Lagrangians arise naturally also in cosmology and give rise to the phenomenon of Hubble friction. We provide an account of this for Friedmann–Lemaître and Bianchi cosmologies and how it fits in with our previous discussion in the non-relativistic limit.

Supersymmetric geometries of IIA supergravity III

We find that (massive) IIA backgrounds that admit a $G_2\ltimes \mathbb{R}^8$ invariant Killing spinor must exhibit a null Killing vector field which leaves the Killing spinor invariant and that the rotation of the Killing vector field satisfies a certain $\mathfrak{g}_2$ instanton condition. This result together with those in [4] and [5] complete the classification of geometries of all (massive) IIA backgrounds that preserve one supersymmetry. We also explore the geometry of a class of backgrounds which admit a $G_2\ltimes \mathbb{R}^8$ invariant Killing spinor and where in addition an appropriate 1-form bilinear vanishes. In all cases, we express the fluxes of the theory in terms of the geometry.

Submaximal conformal symmetry superalgebras for Lorentzian manifolds of low dimension

We consider a class of smooth oriented Lorentzian manifolds in dimensions three and four which admit a nowhere vanishing conformal Killing vector and a closed two-form that is invariant under the Lie algebra of conformal Killing vectors. The invariant two-form is constrained in a particular way by the conformal geometry of the manifold. In three dimensions, the conformal Killing vector must be everywhere causal (or null if the invariant two-form vanishes identically). In four dimensions, the conformal Killing vector must be everywhere null and the invariant two-form vanishes identically if the geometry is everywhere of Petrov type N or O. To the conformal class of any such geometry, it is possible to assign a particular Lie superalgebra structure, called a conformal symmetry superalgebra. The even part of this superalgebra contains conformal Killing vectors and constant R-symmetries while the odd part contains (charged) twistor spinors. The largest possible dimension of a conformal symmetry superalgebra is realised only for geometries that are locally conformally flat. We determine precisely which non-trivial conformal classes of metrics admit a conformal symmetry superalgebra with the next largest possible dimension, and compute all the associated submaximal conformal symmetry superalgebras. In four dimensions, we also compute symmetry superalgebras for a class of Ricci-flat Lorentzian geometries not of Petrov type N or O which admit a null Killing vector.