Symmetry analysis and some exact solutions of cylindrically symmetric null fields in general relativity

The symmetry reduction method based on the Frechet derivative of the differential operators is applied to investigate symmetries of the Field equations in general relativity corresponding to cylindrically symmetric space-time, that is a coupled system of nonlinear partial differential equations of second order. More specifically, this technique yields invariant transformation that reduce the given system of partial differential equations to a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. Some of the reduced systems are further studied for exact solutions. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.