Dynamics of rotating cylindrical shells in general relativity (Q1596249)

The authors study rotating cylindrical space-times by using the Newman-Penrose method of spin coefficients. By use of null geodesic deviations they derive the physical meaning of each component of the Riemann tensor, and the analysis includes rotating dynamic shells. The general expression of the surface energy-momentum tensor of the shells is exhibited in terms of the discontinuity of the first derivatives of the metric tensor. This result is then applied to the stationary shell which generates the Lewis solution (the most general rotating vacuum cylindrical solution of the Einstein equations). Contents includes: an introduction; cylindrical space-times with rotation; rotating cylindrical shells; stationary cylindrical shells; conclusions; and two appendices containing calculations (the Christoffel symbols and the Einstein tensor), and spin-coefficients (the Ricci and Weyl scalars).