Conformally Ricci-flat spacetimes admitting a Killing vector field parallel to the gradient of the conformal scalar field (Q1081859)

A method to generate non-empty solutions of Einstein's equations from empty ones is given. It is assumed that there exists a Killing vector field parallel to the gradient of a conformal scalar field \(\Phi\). The space-time is conformally Ricci-flat, i.e. it satisfies the condition \(\hat R_{ab}=0\) with \(\hat g_{ab}=e^{2\Phi} g_{ab}\). Perfect fluid solutions and Einstein-Maxwell solutions are investigated separately making an appropriate choice of tetrads. The main results of the work are: (i) the stress-energy tensor of a conformally Ricci-flat space-time in which there exists a Killing vector field parallel to the gradient of the conformal scalar field \(\Phi\) cannot be of the perfect fluid type; (ii) this tensor can only originate in an electromagnetic field when the gradient of the scalar field \(\Phi\) is null, and the corresponding solution belongs to a particular class of pp-waves. The Newman-Penrose formalism is used and this makes the method particularly simple.