A spherically symmetric spacetime is a Lorentian 4-dimensional manifold $(M, g)$ whose isometry group contains a subgroup $G$ isomorphic to $\text{SO}(3)$ and whose orbits are 2-spheres. Here I am already confused. How can the orbits of $G$, which are submanifolds of $M$, be 2-spheres? Am I missing some general definition of 2-spheres that does not require being in Euclidean space? Next, how can we rigorously decompose the metric of this spacetime into one of the form $$ g = A(r, t) \text d r ^2 + B(r, t) \text d r \text d t + C(r, t) \text d t^2 + C(r, t) \text d \Omega ^2 \ ? $$ I am willing to take for granted that $\text{Iso}(M)$ is a Lie group and thus $G$ is diffeomorphic to $\text{SO}(3)$. In particular, the Lie algebra of $G$ is isomorphic to that of $\text{SO}(3)$ which is isomorphic to $(\Bbb R^3, \times)$. Because the Lie algebra of the isometry group consists of Killing fields, this means we have 3 Killing Fields $V_i$ s.t. $$ [V_i, V_j] = \epsilon_{ijk} V_k. $$ By Frobenius theorem, these vector fields generate foliation of $M$, and around every point of $M$ we can find a coordinate chart $(U, x^i)$ s.t. each leaf of our foliation corresponds to slices of constant $x^i$ with, say, $i = 0, 1$. Now I somehow need to find a coordinate transformation that ensures the vector fields $\partial_0$ and $\partial_1$ are orthogonal to every leaf of the foliation. To show that the inner products of the coordinate vector fields are independent of their location on each leaf I imagine I have to use the isometry conditions, but I do not know how the coordinate vector fields relate to the isometries themselves. Is there a canonical way to do this?
Asked
Active
Viewed 220 times
10
-
A $2$-sphere is just a particular closed smooth manifold so we can ask for any smooth submanifold of another manifold $M$ to be diffeomorphic to a $2$-sphere. If $M$ is Lorentzian we could furthermore ask such a submanifold to be isometric to a $2$-sphere via the induced metric. I don't know which is intended here; you should tell us what text you're reading. – Qiaochu Yuan Sep 10 '22 at 18:44
-
@QiaochuYuan I am reading Wald, but d'Inverno, MTW, and Wikipedia all make the same definitions. – Katerina Sep 11 '22 at 00:00
-
Wikipedia clarifies, then: "The spacetime metric induces a metric on each orbit 2-sphere (and this induced metric must be a multiple of the metric of a 2-sphere)." – Qiaochu Yuan Sep 11 '22 at 00:07
-
@QiaochuYuan should this be interpreted as an there exists an isometry between the 2-sphere and a leaf of the foliation with the induced metric? Is there a way to link the Killing fields $V_i$ to those on the 2-sphere? – Katerina Sep 11 '22 at 02:53
-
@Katerina I have found similar question and discussion on physics, see my comments there. – JanG Nov 06 '23 at 11:35