Faithful transformation of quasi-isotropic to Weyl-Papapetrou coordinates: A prerequisite to compare metrics
Abstract
We demonstrate how one should transform correctly quasi-isotropic coordinates to Weyl-Papapetrou coordinates in order to compare the metric around a rotating star that has been constructed numerically in the former coordinates with an axially symmetric stationary metric that is given through an analytical form in the latter coordinates. Since a stationary metric associated with an isolated object that is built numerically partly refers to a non-vacuum solution (interior of the star) the transformation of its coordinates to Weyl-Papapetrou coordinates, which are usually used to describe vacuum axisymmetric and stationary solutions of Einstein equations, is not straightforward in the non-vacuum region. If this point is not taken into consideration, one may end up to erroneous conclusions about how well a specific analytical metric matches the metric around the star, due to fallacious coordinate transformations.