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We find a new homogeneous solution to the Einstein-Maxwell equations with a cosmological term. The spacetime manifold is $R \times S^3$. The spacetime metric admits a simply transitive isometry group $G = R \times SU(2)$ of isometries and is of Petrov type I. The spacetime is geodesically complete and globally hyperbolic. The electromagnetic field is non-null and non-inheriting: it is only invariant with respect to the $SU(2)$ subgroup and is time-dependent in a stationary reference frame., Comment: 14 pages

We approach the construction of Backlund transformations for Darboux integrable hyperbolic partial differential equations in the plane through the reduction of exterior differential systems. For example it is shown that all the Backlund transformations in arXiv:0707.4408v2 can be constructed using symmetry reduction., Comment: 28 pages

DifferentialGeometry is a Maple software package which symbolically performs fundamental operations of calculus on manifolds, differential geometry, tensor calculus, Lie algebras, Lie groups, transformation groups, jet spaces, and the variational calculus. These capabilities, combined with dramatic recent improvements in symbolic approaches to solving algebraic and differential equations, have allowed for development of powerful new tools for solving research problems in gravitation and field theory. The purpose of this paper is to describe some of these new tools and present some advanced applications involving: Killing vector fields and isometry groups, Killing tensors and other tensorial invariants, algebraic classification of curvature, and symmetry reduction of field equations., Comment: 42 pages

In this paper we present a far-reaching generalization of E. Vessiot's analysis of the Darboux integrable partial differential equations in one dependent and two independent variables. Our approach provides new insights into this classical method, uncovers the fundamental geometric invariants of Darboux integrable systems, and provides for systematic, algorithmic integration of such systems. This work is formulated within the general framework of Pfaffian exterior differential systems and, as such, has applications well beyond those currently found in the literature. In particular, our integration method is applicable to systems of hyperbolic PDE such as the Toda lattice equations, 2 dimensional wave maps and systems of overdetermined PDE., Comment: 80 page report. Updated version with some new sections, and major improvements to others

We characterize Lie group actions for which there exists, at least locally, an evaluation map that defines a cochain map from the differential complex of invariant forms on a manifold to the De Rham complex for the quotient., Comment: 9 pages

This is a brief overview of our work on the theory of group invariant solutions to differential equations. The motivations and applications of this work stem from problems in differential geometry and relativistic field theory. The key feature in our theory is that we allow for non-transverse symmetry group actions, which are very common in applications., Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the 2000 NSF-CBMS conference The Geometrical Study of Differential Equations, 10 pages, AMSTeX

A new, general, field theoretic approach to the derivation of asymptotic conservation laws is presented. In this approach asymptotic conservation laws are constructed directly from the field equations according to a universal prescription which does not rely upon the existence of Noether identities or any Lagrangian or Hamiltonian formalisms. The resulting general expressions of the conservation laws enjoy important invariance properties and synthesize all known asymptotic conservation laws, such as the ADM energy in general relativity., Comment: 13 pages, AMS-TeX, amsppt.sty, revised to give a better exposition (we hope), and to correct some typesetting errors

A generalized symmetry of a system of differential equations is an infinitesimal transformation depending locally upon the fields and their derivatives which carries solutions to solutions. We classify all generalized symmetries of the vacuum Einstein equations in four spacetime dimensions. To begin, we analyze symmetries that can be built from the metric, curvature, and covariant derivatives of the curvature to any order; these are called natural symmetries and are globally defined on any spacetime manifold. We next classify first-order generalized symmetries, that is, symmetries that depend on the metric and its first derivatives. Finally, using results from the classification of natural symmetries, we reduce the classification of all higher-order generalized symmetries to the first-order case. In each case we find that the generalized symmetries are infinitesimal generalized diffeomorphisms and constant metric scalings. There are no non-trivial conservation laws associated with these symmetries. A novel feature of our analysis is the use of a fundamental set of spinorial coordinates on the infinite jet space of Ricci-flat metrics, which are derived from Penrose's ``exact set of fields'' for the vacuum equations., Comment: 57 pages, plain TeX

Generalized symmetries of the Einstein equations are infinitesimal transformations of the spacetime metric that formally map solutions of the Einstein equations to other solutions. The infinitesimal generators of these symmetries are assumed to be local, \ie at a given spacetime point they are functions of the metric and an arbitrary but finite number of derivatives of the metric at the point. We classify all generalized symmetries of the vacuum Einstein equations in four spacetime dimensions and find that the only generalized symmetry transformations consist of: (i) constant scalings of the metric (ii) the infinitesimal action of generalized spacetime diffeomorphisms. Our results rule out a large class of possible ``observables'' for the gravitational field, and suggest that the vacuum Einstein equations are not integrable., Comment: 15 pages, FTG-114-USU, Plain TeX