A Class of Integrable Metrics

Abstract

In four dimensions, the most general metric admitting two Killing vectors and a rank-two Killing tensor can be parameterized by ten arbitrary functions of a single variable. We show that picking a special vierbien, reducing the system to eight functions, implies the existence of two geodesic and share-free, null congruences, generated by two principal null directions of the Weyl tensor. Thus, if the spacetime is an Einstein manifold, the Goldberg-Sachs theorem implies it is Petrov type D, and by explicit construction, is in the Carter class. Hence, our analysis provide an straightforward connection between the most general integrable structure and the Carter family of spacetimes.