Buchdahl-inspired spacetimes: How to break a six-decades-old impasse

Speaker: Dr. Hoang Ky Nguyen, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

In this talk I shall revitalize an obscure program that Hans Buchdahl ventured circa 1962. He proved therein that the vacua generally have non-constant scalar curvature. Unfortunately, he deemed the final step in his calculations insurmountable and suspended his further pursuit – prematurely so – and his work has largely become a “lost art” nowadays. I recently broke this six-decades-old impasse and accomplished his goal. I shall present three sets of vacua that are either derived from, or inspired by, the Buchdahl program.