Dept Math & Stat UiT, Forskningsparken B281
  17 Dec 2020 Thu 11:00-12:00

Matthew Terje Aadne (University of Stavanger)

Scalar curvature invariants, Kundt spacetimes and Kundt structures

Kundt spacetimes are defined as those having a hypersurface-orthogonal, shear-free, divergence-free and geodesic null-congruence. The scalar curvature invariants of such spacetimes have properties that do not occur in the Riemannian setting: There are deformations of metrics leaving the invariants unchanged and metrics with constant scalar curvature invariants, but no Killing vectors.

In this talk I will give an overview of these matters. In addition, I will discuss a G-structure approach to scalar curvature invariants and Kundt metrics through Kundt structures.