An Approach to Gravitational Radiation by a Method of Spin Coefficients

Abstract

A new approach to general relativity by means of a tetrad or spinor formalism is presented. The essential feature of this approach is the consistent use of certain complex linear combinations of Ricci rotation coefficients which give, in effect, the spinor affine connection. It is applied to two problems in radiation theory; a concise proof of a theorem of Goldberg and Sachs and a description of the asymptotic behavior of the Riemann tensor and metric tensor, for outgoing gravitational radiation.