Hidden symmetries of the gravitational contact structure of the classical phase space of general relativistic test particle

Josef Janyška

Address: Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic

E-mail: janyska@math.muni.cz

Abstract: The phase space of general relativistic test particle is defined as the 1-jet space of motions. A Lorentzian metric defines the canonical contact structure on the odd-dimensional phase space. In the paper we study infinitesimal symmetries of the gravitational contact phase structure which are not generated by spacetime infinitesimal symmetries, i.e. they are hidden symmetries. We prove that Killing multivector fields admit hidden symmetries of the gravitational contact phase structure and we give the explicit description of such hidden symmetries.

AMSclassification: primary 70H40; secondary 70H45, 70H33, 70G45, 58A20.

Keywords: phase space, gravitational contact phase structure, gravitational Jacobi phase structure, infinitesimal symmetry, hidden symmetry, Killing multivector field.

DOI: 10.5817/AM2014-5-297