Revisit Birkhoff’s Theorem: The Post-Newtonian Metric of a Self-Gravitating and Collapsing Thin Spherical Shell

Abstract

We calculate the metric of a self-gravitating and collapsing infinitely thin spherical shell in the weak-field and slow-motion limits, and we demonstrate that Birkhoff’s theorem is not consistent with the theory of the post-Newtonian approximation. More importantly, it is illustrated that performing a coordinate transformation in solving Einstein field equations may change the matter energy-momentum tensor, making the resultant solution not correspond to the original problem.

Keywords

• Birkhoff’s theorem
• coordinate transformation
• reference frame
• post-Newtonian approximation
• second gravitational potential
• gravitomagnetic field