2011/09/20 by Andrea Nerozzi, Nerozzi, Andrea
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1109.4400
openalex publication_date 2011/09/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The Newman-Penrose formalism in transverse tetrads, namely those tetrads where Ψ1=Ψ3=0, is studied. In particular it is shown that the equations governing the dynamics within this formalism can be recast in a particularly compact way, leading to a better understanding of the formalism itself. The particular choice of tetrad allows not only to obtain the expression of Weyl scalars as simple functions of curvature invariants, but also the spin coefficients can be partly determined in an invariant way, by means of a new expression for the Bianchi identities that shows the various degrees of freedom in a more intuitive and direct way. We expect this approach to be very promising for a better understanding of all the equations governing the Newman-Penrose formalism. Such a new insight to the equations can also turn out to be useful for a generalization of the Newman- Penrose formalism to higher dimensions, thus allowing a better analysis of the various degrees of freedom, in view of extending to this case results already known in four dimensions.