Conformal Symmetries of the Energy–Momentum Tensor of Spherically Symmetric Static Spacetimes

Abstract

Conformal matter collineations of the energy–momentum tensor of a general spherically symmetric static spacetime are studied. The general form of these collineations is found when the energy–momentum tensor is non-degenerate, and the maximum number of independent conformal matter collineations is 15. In the degenerate case of the energy–momentum tensor, it is found that these collineations have infinite degrees of freedom. In some subcases of degenerate energy–momentum, the Ricci tensor is non-degenerate, that is, there exist non-degenerate Ricci inheritance collineations.