Structural equations for Killing tensors of arbitrary rank (Q1125189): Difference between revisions

Geodesics in an Riemannian space-time can be explicitly calculated if sufficiently many first integrals are known. This plays a special role in general relativity, where the space-time is a pseudo-Riemannian manifold. The motion of test particles is described by geodesics. Integrals of motion can be found, if Killing vectors exist, i.e., a tangent vector field to a one-parameter set of isometries. In the present paper, a generalization of the notion of a Killing vector to Killing tensors is considered, and several useful consequences of them are given. Even the case with flat space-time is non-trivial from this point of view. The computer algebra program REDUCE is applied.