Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2017 / iii / Paper 312 / 1 / a / ii / Solution

Differentiate the normalization of the timelike unit normal with the metric-compatible covariant derivative:Thus the derivative of the normal is already orthogonal to the normal in its second index. Expanding the second spatial projection tensor in the definition of the extrinsic curvature of a spatial hypersurface givesTo prove symmetry using Frobenius theorem, set $F_{\alpha \beta }={\nabla }_{\alpha }{n}_{\beta }-{\nabla }_{\beta }{n}_{\alpha }$. Hypersurface orthogonality is equivalent toContract this with $n^{\alpha }{P}^{\beta }{}_{\mu }{P}^{\lambda }{}_{\nu }$. The last two terms vanish because a projected normal vanishes, while $n^{\alpha }{n}_{\alpha }=-1$ in the first term. HenceThe antisymmetric part of the doubly projected covariant derivative of $n$ is therefore zero. This proves that hypersurface orthogonality implies symmetric extrinsic curvature:No geodesic assumption for the normal congruence is needed; its normal acceleration may be nonzero.