Conformally Flat Noncircular Spacetimes

Abstract

The general metric for conformally flat stationary cyclic symmetric noncircular spacetimes is explicitly given. In spite of the complexity introduced by the inclusion of noncircular contributions, the related metric is derived via the full integration of the conformal flatness constraints. It is also shown that the conditions for the existence of a rotation axis (axisymmetry) are the same ones which restrict the above class of spacetimes to be static. As a consequence, a known theorem by Collinson is just part of a more general result: any conformally flat stationary cyclic symmetric spacetime, even a noncircular one, is additionally axisymmetric if and only if it is also static. Since recent astrophysical motivations point in the direction of considering noncircular configurations to describe magnetized neutron stars, the above results seem to be relevant in this context.