On ellipsoidal solutions of Liouville's equation in general relativity

Abstract

A relativistic, collisionless gas of gravitating particles all having the same proper mass (possibly equal to zero) is studied under the assumption that the oneparticle distribution function is locally ellipsoidal in momentum space with respect to some timelike vector field (observer). Liouville's equation implies that the distribution function depends only on a quadratic form in the 4- momenta, whose coefficients are a Killing tensor in the case of non- vanishing proper mass, and a conformal Killing tensor in the case of vanishing rest mass of the particles. It is suggested that cosmological models of Bianchi-type I can be described in terms of ellipsoidal momentum distribution functions whose ellipsoidal tensor is built out of the Killing vectors associated with the spatial homogeneity.