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Toth - Maxima and the Petrov classication

11/22/14

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Maxima and the Petrov classification

Note: this is a work -in-progress. Source code, when considered to be
sufficiently stable, will be provided through the open-source Maxima
project at maxima.sourceforge.net.
One of the common problems in general relativity concerns the equivalence of
two metrics. Because the same manifold can be mapped using drastically
different coordinate systems, it is usually not at all that evident whether or not
two metrics describe the same manifold. One tool often used to determine if two
metrics might be equivalent is an algebraic classification method of the Weyltensor, the so-called Petrov-classification.
There are several packages that can do Petrov classification, including the
tensor and grTensorII packages in Maple, or the dedicated computer algebra
package SHEEP. No such tools existed in Maxima, however. Well, not quite.
There was a code fragment in the Maxima tensor package that implemented the
Petrov classification algorithm, but it was not supported by any tools; most
importantly, no tools were available to perform computations in a rigid frame and
to obtain a null tetrad.
Until now, that is. Although this is still considered a work-in-progress, I have put
together a set of subroutines that can do all of the above. The following Maxima
session demonstrates how these functions can be used to derive the Petrov
class of the Kerr metric:
(%i1) batch("petrov.dem");

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batching #p/home/vttoth/dev/maxima/maxima/share/tensor/petrov.dem
(%i2)
Attempt to compute the Petrov classification of the Kerr metric.
(%i3)
First, we need to load modules and define the metric:
(%i4)
load(ctensor)
(%o4)
/home/vttoth/dev/maxima/maxima/share/tensor/ctensor.mac
(%i5)
init_ctensor()
(%o5)
done
(%i6)
gcd : spmod
(%o6)
spmod
(%i7)
ct_coords : [t, r, h, p]
(%i8)
declare([a, m], constant)
2
2
(%i9)
s(r, h) := (a cos(h)) + r
2
2
(%i10)
d(r) := r - 2 m r + a
(%i11)
dim : 4
d(r)
d(r)
2
s(r, h)
(%i12) fri : matrix([sqrt(-------), 0, 0, - sqrt(-------) a sin (h)], [0, sqrt(-------), 0, 0],
s(r, h)
s(r, h)
d(r)

(- a) sin(h)
((a sin(h))
[0, 0, sqrt(s(r, h)), 0], [-------------, 0, 0, ----------sqrt(s(r, h))
sqr
2
a sin (h) sqrt(
0
0
- --------------2
sqrt(r +

http://www.vttoth.com/CMS/index.php/192

[
2
2
[ sqrt(r - 2 m r + a )
[ --------------------[
2
2
2
[ sqrt(r + a cos (h))
[
[
2
2
2
[
sqrt(r + a cos (h))
[
0
--------------------0
0
(%o12) [
2
2
[
sqrt(r - 2 m r + a )
[
[
2
2
2
[
0
0
sqrt(r + a cos (h))
0
[
[
2
2
[
a sin(h)
sin(h) (r + a sin
[ - --------------------0
0
------------------[
2
2
2
2
[
sqrt(r + a cos (h))
sqrt(r + a
(%i13)
We need aggressive simplification to ensure that the result is correct.
1/2

Viktor T. Toth - Maxima and the Petrov classication

(%i13)
(%i14)
(%o14)
(%i15)
(%o15)
(%i16)
(%o16)
(%i17)
(%o17)
(%i18)
(%i19)
(%o19)
(%i20)
(%o20)
(%i21)
(%o21)
(%i22)
(%o22)
(%i23)
(%o23)
(%i24)
(%i25)
(%t25)

We need aggressive simplification to ensure that the result 11/22/14

is correct.
ctrgsimp : true
true
ratfac : true
true
cframe_flag : true
true
cmetric(false)
false
ug : invert(lg)
nptetrad(false)
done
christof(false)
done
lriemann(false)
done
ricci(false)
done
weyl(false)
done
Now we're ready to compute the Newman-Penrose coefficients:
psi(true)
psi = 0
0

(%t26)

psi = 0
1

(%t27)

m
psi = -----------------2
3
(r + %i a cos(h))

(%t28)

psi = 0
3

(%t29)

psi = 0
4

(%o29)
(%i29)
(%o29)

done
petrov()
Type is D

By way of explanation, after initialization and setting up an orthonormal tetrad

base using the cframe_flag option, the next step is to compute the metric. A
Newman-Penrose null tetrad is also computed using the nptetrad function.
With the metric computed, it is possible to use functions from the ctensor
package to compute the Ricci and the Weyl tensors.
With the null tetrad and the Weyl tensor, we can compute the Newman-Penrose
coefficients which, in turn, are simplified and then used to compute the Petrov
class. The Petrov class of the Kerr metric is D, which this script correctly
obtains.

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