On generalization of Birkhoff's theorem (Q864866)

Let \((M, g)\) be a spherically symmetric space-time, i.e., a \(4\)-dimensional time-oriented connected Lorentz manifold with a spherical isometric action \(\Phi: \text{SO}(3)\times M\to M\), namely an isometric action for which the maximum of the dimension of its orbits is \(2.\) A theorem of G.D. Birkhoff states that a spherically symmetric space-time \((M, g)\) with vanishing Ricci curvature admits a Killing field (the so called Birkhoff field) beyond those given by the spherical action and thus it is static under an additional condition motivated by the exterior Schwarzschild space-time. In this case the union of the principal (nonexceptional) orbits forms a connected open dence subset \(M^*\) of \(M\), called the principal part of \(M.\) In this interesting paper the author gives several generalizations of the above result and among others he presents a more general framework of space-times \((M, g)\) which admit an isometric action of a \(3\)-dimensional Lie group \(G\) instead of \(\text{SO}(3).\) In particular, the author shows that if \((M, g)\) is a spherically symmetric space-time, then the principal part \(M^*\) of \(M\) is such that under fairly general global conditions it may be written as a warped product (with warping function \(\rho :L\to \mathbb R^+\)) of a \(2\)-dimensional Lorentz manifold \(L\) (a leaf \(L\) of the distribution orthogonal to the principal orbits) and the \(2\)-sphere, i.e. \(M^*=L\times _{\rho}S^2.\) Also the author shows that given a \(2\)-dimensional connected time-oriented Lorentz manifold \(L\) with Killing field \(S\) on \(L\) and a smooth function \(\rho :L\to \mathbb R^+\) (the so called ``radial function'') which is a first integral of \(S\), the spherically symmetric space-time given by the warped product \(Q=L\times _{\rho}S^2\) admits a Birkhoff field \(X\) which is a canonical lift of the Killing field \(S\) of \((L, g).\) Finally, necessary and sufficient conditions are given on the gradient and Laplacian of the radial function for the existence of a Birkhoff field.