Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2010/iii/paper-54/1/a/ii/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 54 1 a ii Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The Levi-Civita connection has symmetric Christoffel symbols, so antisymmetrization removes its connection terms. Hence the Papapetrou electromagnetic field iswhere the last equality uses the Killing equation. As a differential two-form, , so the identity for the exterior derivative proves . Contracting the preceding second covariant derivative of a Killing vector givesA vacuum spacetime here has , with no cosmological constant. Therefore both source-free Maxwell equations hold:This is a test electromagnetic field on the given vacuum spacetime; its own stress-energy tensor is not included in that background's Einstein field equations.
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