Einstein-Maxwell theory and the Weyl double copy

Abstract

The Weyl double copy relates vacuum solutions in general relativity to Abelian gauge fields in Minkowski spacetime. In a previous work, we showed how the Weyl double copy can be extended to provide a treatment of external gravitational sources consistent with the classical Kerr-Schild double copy. Using this generalization, here we provide a complete double copy analysis of electrovacuum Petrov type D spacetimes. This includes the first analysis of the charged C-metric, whose single copy interpretation invokes the two-potential formalism of electrodynamics. We also present the first double copy prescription for the Ricci spinor, which for non-accelerating spacetimes, takes a form similar to the original double copy relation for the Weyl spinor.