Teukolsky equations, twistor functions, and conformally self-dual spaces

TL;DR

This paper establishes a mathematical correspondence between twistor functions and solutions to the Teukolsky equations on self-dual manifolds, providing new integral formulas, recursion operators, and applications to various geometric structures.

Contribution

It introduces a new correspondence linking twistor functions and Teukolsky solutions on self-dual manifolds, with explicit formulas and operators, expanding understanding of conformally self-dual geometries.

Findings

Derived a contour integral formula for Teukolsky solutions

Constructed a recursion operator generating infinite solutions

Mapped Teukolsky equations to conformal wave equations in examples

Abstract

We prove a correspondence, for Riemannian manifolds with self-dual Weyl tensor, between twistor functions and solutions to the Teukolsky equations for any conformal and spin weights. In particular, we give a contour integral formula for solutions to the Teukolsky equations, and we find a recursion operator that generates an infinite family of solutions and leads to the construction of Cech representatives and sheaf cohomology classes on twistor space. Apart from the general conformally self-dual case, examples include self-dual black holes, scalar-flat K\"ahler surfaces, and quaternionic-K\"ahler metrics, where we map the Teukolsky equation to the conformal wave equation, establish new relations to the linearised Przanowski equation, and find new classes of quaternionic deformations.