Hydrostatic equilibrium along a Killing vector ($dp=-(\rho +p)d\log N,N=\sqrt{K^a{K}_a}$)

For metric signature $(+---)$, a stationary perfect fluid follows a timelike Killing vector field $K$ with four-velocity $U=K/N$. Its Killing-flow four-acceleration is $U^b{\nabla }_b{U}_a=-{\nabla }_a\log N$. The relativistic Euler equation and stationarity of the pressure give the displayed hydrostatic equilibrium equation. This uses stationarity along $K$ and does not require hypersurface orthogonality.

The equation of state of isotropic blackbody radiation is $p=\rho /3$. The barotropic hydrostatic first integral gives $\rho N^4=C$. The Stefan–Boltzmann law $\rho \propto T^4$ then yields the Tolman–Ehrenfest relation $TN=\mathrm{constant}$. Here $N=\sqrt{|K^a{K}_a|}$ for the stationary timelike Killing vector field; its normalization only changes the constants.

A connected nonvacuum perfect fluid with equation of state $p=\rho /3$ obeys the stationary radiation density law $\rho =C/N^4$ with $C>0$. On a compact region of a regular spacetime, a smooth Killing vector field has bounded norm. Consequently $\rho$ cannot tend to zero at a finite regular free surface. A vanishing timelike norm instead makes the density diverge. A radiation-filled cavity can have a material wall with nonzero boundary pressure; this is a different boundary condition.

For a barotropic fluid in hydrostatic equilibrium along a Killing vector, assume $\rho +p>0$. Integrating $dp/(\rho +p)=-d\log N$ gives the displayed first integral, constant on each connected fluid region. For the equation of state $p=w\rho$ with constant $w>0$, it gives $\rho N^{(1+w)/w}=C_1$.