5.3 Type II twisting metrics
It was pointed out in the previous section that the RT metrics are the general relativistic
analogues of the (real) Liénard–Wiechert Maxwell fields. The type II algebraically-special
twisting metrics are the gravitational analogues of the complex Liénard–Wiechert Maxwell fields
described earlier. Unfortunately they are far more complicated than the RT metrics. In spite of
the large literature and much effort there are very few known solutions and much still to be
learned [41, 58, 46]. We give a very brief description of them, emphasizing only the items of relevance to
us.
A null tetrad system (and null geodesic coordinates) can be adopted for the type II metrics so that the
Weyl tetrad components are
It follows from the Goldberg–Sachs theorem that the degenerate principal null congruence is geodesic and
shear-free. Thus, from the earlier discussions it follows that there is a unique angle field,
. As
with the complex Liénard–Wiechert Maxwell fields, the type II metrics and Weyl tensors are given in
terms of the angle field,
. In fact, the entire metric and the field equations (the
asymptotic Bianchi identities) can be written in terms of
and a Weyl tensor component
(essentially the Bondi mass). Since
describes a unique shear-free NGC, it can be written
parametrically in terms of a unique GCF, namely the UCF
. So, we have that
Since
can be expanded in spherical harmonics, the
harmonics
can be identified with a (unique) complex world line in
-space. The asymptotic Bianchi
identities then yield both kinematic equations (for angular momentum and the Bondi linear
momentum) and equations of motion for the world line, analogous to those obtained for the
Schwarzschild perturbation and the RT metrics. As a kinematic example, the imaginary part of
the world line is identified as the intrinsic spin, the same identification as in the Kerr metric,
In Section 6, a version of these results will be derived in a far more general context.
Recently, the type II Einstein–Maxwell equations were studied using a slow-motion perturbation
expansion around the Reissner–Nördstrom metric, keeping spherical harmonic contributions up to
.
It was found that the above-mentioned world line coincides in this case with that given by the
Abraham–Lorentz–Dirac equation, prompting us to consider such spacetimes as ‘type II particles’
in the same way that one can refer to Reissner–Nördstrom–Schwarzschild or Kerr–Newman
‘particles’ [52].