Radiation structures on isotropic hypersurfaces

Abstract

The geometrical structures (in the sense of E. Cartan) are analyzed which underlie the gravitational radiation phenomenon. Among the results are : - the introduction of the adapted frame bundle to a congruence of isotropic hypersurfaces in a Lorentzian manifold, - the description of the reduced frame bundle which admits a unique radiation connection induced from the ambiant space-time one, - the determination of the automorphisms of an integrable radiation structure, - the repercussions of the geometry on the shape of the stress-energy tensor in the Einstein's field equations.