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Newman-Penrose formalism: Can a normalized spin-frame be found for every null tetrad?

Physics Asked by blue banana on June 24, 2021

I have a question within the framework of spin-coefficient formalism / Newman-Penrose formalism. Suppose I have a space-time metric whose components with respect to some coordinate basis are known. I can then easily construct a null tetrad (to be more precise: the vector components of the tetrad vectors to the coordinate basis).

Since many calculations are easier if the corresponding spinor basis is a normalized spin frame $o_Aiota^A=1$ I would like to know if the spinor basis that corresponds to my null tetrad is such a normalized spin frame.

I am a bit lost at that point. Can I find a spinor basis in spinor space that corresponds to the null tetrad basis in tensor space and will it be a normalized spin frame? Or is there a multitude of possible spinor bases that can be normalized through some procedure? Does it depend on the specific null tetrad (for a given metric there is no unique null tetrad, but a number of independent possibilities)?

One Answer

The Newman-Penrose formalism replaces tensors with spinors by introducing vector space isomorphisms $varsigma_p: T_pM to (S otimes overline{S})$, where $S$ is our spinor space and $overline{S}$ is its complex conjugate; corresponding maps for $T_p^*M$ are of course introduced via the canonical isometries. These maps are required to preserve the inner product at each point, so that omitting the $p$ subscript and adopting index notation we write: $$tag{1} g_{ab} = varsigma_a{}^{AA'}varsigma_b{}^{BB'}epsilon_{AB}epsilon_{A'B'}, $$ where $epsilon_{AB}$ ($epsilon_{A'B'}$) is the inner product on $S$ ($overline{S}$). This makes $varsigma$ an isometry at each point.

Thus for each choice of $varsigma$ a null frame corresponds to a unique combination of spinors (at each point). Usually we choose $varsigma$ and a basis $(o^A,iota^A)$ on $S$ such that $$ (l^a,n^a,m^a,overline{m}^a) = (o^Ao^{A'},iota^Aiota^{A'},o^Aiota^{A'},iota^Ao^{A'}). $$ Because of $(1)$, any such spinor basis will be normalized, since the null frame is. Of course, other spinor bases can also be chosen and each one can be made to correspond to the same null frame by redefining $varsigma$.

The crucial point to notice is that with this approach $S$ is not intrinsic to the geometry, but rather $(Sotimesoverline{S})$ is taken as an alternative representation of $T_pM$ at each point.

Answered by Erik Jörgenfelt on June 24, 2021

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