Integrability conditions for vacuum spacetimes with a Killing vector field

Abstract

We present a new approach to the study of vacuum spacetimes with a Killing symmetry. The central quantity in this approach is the exterior derivative of the Killing vector field, which is a test electromagnetic field. Considering the algebraic structure of this quantity we get a new view of the integrability conditions, which provides a natural way of studying the connections between the algebraic structure of the spacetime and properties of the Killing symmetry.