Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
1894520 Journal of Geometry and Physics 2016 19 Pages PDF
Abstract

We show that every nn-dimensional locally homogeneous pp-wave is a plane wave, provided it is indecomposable and its curvature operator, when acting on 2-forms, has rank greater than one. As a consequence we obtain that indecomposable, Ricci-flat locally homogeneous pp-waves are plane waves. This generalises a classical result by Jordan, Ehlers and Kundt in dimension 4. Several examples show that our assumptions on indecomposability and the rank of the curvature are essential.

Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Mathematics Mathematical Physics
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