Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2021 / iii / Paper 311 / 1 / c

The hypersurface generators have zero null twist. Contracting the Einstein field equations twice with the null tangent removes the trace term, and the null energy condition gives $R_{ab}{U}^a{U}^b=8\pi T_{ab}{U}^a{U}^b\ge 0$. Since the squared null shear is nonnegative, the Null Raychaudhuri equation impliesWhile $\theta <0$ this is equivalent toStarting from $\theta (0)={\theta }_0<0$, the right-hand side reaches zero no later than $\lambda =2/|{\theta }_0|$. The reciprocal expansion must therefore vanish andThis is the null focusing theorem.