Conformally isometric embeddings and Hawking temperature

Abstract

We find necessary and sufficient conditions for existence of a locally isometric embedding of a vacuum space-time into a conformally-flat 5-space. We explicitly construct such embeddings for any spherically symmetric Lorentzian metric in $3+1$ dimensions as a hypersurface in $R^{4, 1}$. For the Schwarzschild metric the embedding is global, and extends through the horizon all the way to the $r=0$ singularity. We discuss the asymptotic properties of the embedding in the context of Penrose's theorem on Schwarzschild causality. We finally show that the Hawking temperature of the Schwarzschild metric agrees with the Unruh temperature measured by an observer moving along hyperbolae in $R^{4, 1}$.