Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 52 1 b iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Write and . The Killing equation makes antisymmetric. Expanding hypersurface orthogonality and contracting with givesHere metric compatibility gives . Thereforeand the normalized Killing one-form satisfiesThus the required exponent is . The notation in this paper denotes the negative scalar , rather than a positive squared norm; the answer uses only its real reciprocal. More generally, for a multiplier the antisymmetric derivative is , so is the universally valid choice. If is constant, other exponents can work in that particular metric.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 52 1 b iv Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The normalized Killing one-form is a closed differential form. The Poincare lemma gives a local scalar potential with , hence . Choose the adapted chart of part (i), so . ThenThe closed differential form condition supplies the integrability of these spatial derivatives. For a fixed and , is determined locally up to an additive constant; its derivatives cannot be chosen freely despite the wording in the paper.
Use , . The Jacobian determinant is one, so this is a local coordinate change. Holding fixed gives , while its metric-dual one-form is . Thus and . The Killing equation still holds, so . The metric is locally static:A closed differential form need not be globally exact; neither a global potential nor a global static chart follows without additional topological assumptions.