Conformal Symmetries of the Strumia–Tetradis’ Metric

Abstract

In a recent paper, a new conformally flat metric was introduced, describing an expanding scalar field in a spherically symmetric geometry. The spacetime can be interpreted as a Schwarzschild-like model with an apparent horizon surrounding the curvature singularity. For the above metric, we present the complete conformal Lie algebra consisting of a six-dimensional subalgebra of isometries (Killing Vector Fields or KVFs) and nine proper conformal vector fields (CVFs). An interesting aspect of our findings is that there exists a gradient (proper) conformal symmetry (i.e., its bivector Fab vanishes) which verifies the importance of gradient symmetries in constructing viable cosmological models. In addition, the 9-dimensional conformal algebra implies the existence of constants of motion along null geodesics that allow us to determine the complete solution of null geodesic equations.

Keywords

• geometric symmetries
• conformal vector fields
• scalar fields
• relativistic cosmology