Self-similar symmetry in general relativity (Q1309027)

Considering the matter as being represented by a viscous fluid with non- vanishing shear and no heat conduction, the author demonstrates that ``In general relativity a necessary and sufficient condition for a spherical distribution of matter to be self-similar is that the spacelike hypersurfaces orthogonal to the four-velocity of matter admit a homothetic Killing vector, viz., \[ {\mathcal L}_ \xi h_{\mu \nu} = 2h_{\mu \nu} \text{ with } h_{\mu \nu} = g_{\mu \nu} - U_ \mu U_ \nu \] where \(U^ \mu\) represents the four-velocity of the matter, and \(h_{\mu \nu}\) is the first fundamental form of the hypersurfaces orthogonal to \(U^{\mu}\)''. This theorem gives a specific answer to one of the basic questions about the covariant characterization of the self- similar symmetry in general relativity, ``How can one characterize the existence of self-similar symmetry of the second type geometrically?'', and extends a result obtained by \textit{M. E. Cahill} and \textit{A. H. Taub} [Comment. Math. Phys. 21, 1-40 (1971)]. The particular (but very important) case of shear-free spherically symmetric self-gravitating distributions of matter has been also carefully investigated in this paper.