Locally homogeneous pp-waves (Q314033): Difference between revisions

Recall that a weaker version of homogeneity is local homogeneity: A semi-Riemannian manifold \((M, g)\) is \textit{locally homogeneous} if for each point \(p\in M\) there exists a neighbourhood \(U\) such that the Killing vector fields of \((U, g|_{U})\) span \(T_pM\) when evaluated at \(p\). This paper studies local homogeneity for a certain class of Lorentzian manifolds, namely \textit{pp-waves} and the particular class of \textit{plane waves}. The first main result is the following \textbf{Theorem 1.} Let \((M, g)\) be a pp-wave of arbitrary dimension with parallel null vector field \(V\). Assume that \((M, g)\) is strongly indecomposable and that almost everywhere the rank of its curvature endomorphism acting on \(\Lambda ^2TM\) is larger than one. Then \((M, g)\) is a plane wave if it is locally \(V^{\bot}\)-homogeneous.