This book provides an upto date information on metric, connection and curva ture symmetries used in geometry and physics. More specifically, we present the characterizations and classifications of Riemannian and Lorentzian manifolds (in particular, the spacetimes of general relativity) admitting metric (i.e., Killing, ho mothetic and conformal), connection (i.e., affine conformal and projective) and curvature symmetries. Our approach, in this book, has the following outstanding features: (a) It is the first-ever attempt of a comprehensive collection of the works of a very large number of researchers on all the above mentioned symmetries. (b) We have aimed at bringing together the researchers interested in differential geometry and the mathematical physics of general relativity by giving an invariant as well as the index form of the main formulas and results. (c) Attempt has been made to support several main mathematical results by citing physical example(s) as applied to general relativity. (d) Overall the presentation is self contained, fairly accessible and in some special cases supported by an extensive list of cited references. (e) The material covered should stimulate future research on symmetries. Chapters 1 and 2 contain most of the prerequisites for reading the rest of the book. We present the language of semi-Euclidean spaces, manifolds, their tensor calculus; geometry of null curves, non-degenerate and degenerate (light like) hypersurfaces. All this is described in invariant as well as the index form."

This book is about the light like (degenerate) geometry of submanifolds needed to fill a gap in the general theory of submanifolds. The growing importance of light like hypersurfaces in mathematical physics, in particular their extensive use in relativity, and very limited information available on the general theory of lightlike submanifolds, motivated the present authors, in 1990, to do collaborative research on the subject matter of this book. Based on a series of author's papers (Bejancu [3], Bejancu-Duggal [1,3], Dug gal [13], Duggal-Bejancu [1,2,3]) and several other researchers, this volume was conceived and developed during the Fall '91 and Fall '94 visits of Bejancu to the University of Windsor, Canada. The primary difference between the lightlike submanifold and that of its non degenerate counterpart arises due to the fact that in the first case, the normal vector bundle intersects with the tangent bundle of the submanifold. Thus, one fails to use, in the usual way, the theory of non-degenerate submanifolds (cf. Chen [1]) to define the induced geometric objects (such as linear connection, second fundamental form, Gauss and Weingarten equations) on the light like submanifold. Some work is known on null hypersurfaces and degenerate submanifolds (see an up-to-date list of references on pages 138 and 140 respectively). Our approach, in this book, has the following outstanding features: (a) It is the first-ever attempt of an up-to-date information on null curves, lightlike hypersur faces and submanifolds, consistent with the theory of non-degenerate submanifolds.

This book provides an upto date information on metric, connection and curva ture symmetries used in geometry and physics. More specifically, we present the characterizations and classifications of Riemannian and Lorentzian manifolds (in particular, the spacetimes of general relativity) admitting metric (i.e., Killing, ho mothetic and conformal), connection (i.e., affine conformal and projective) and curvature symmetries. Our approach, in this book, has the following outstanding features: (a) It is the first-ever attempt of a comprehensive collection of the works of a very large number of researchers on all the above mentioned symmetries. (b) We have aimed at bringing together the researchers interested in differential geometry and the mathematical physics of general relativity by giving an invariant as well as the index form of the main formulas and results. (c) Attempt has been made to support several main mathematical results by citing physical example(s) as applied to general relativity. (d) Overall the presentation is self contained, fairly accessible and in some special cases supported by an extensive list of cited references. (e) The material covered should stimulate future research on symmetries. Chapters 1 and 2 contain most of the prerequisites for reading the rest of the book. We present the language of semi-Euclidean spaces, manifolds, their tensor calculus; geometry of null curves, non-degenerate and degenerate (light like) hypersurfaces. All this is described in invariant as well as the index form.

This book is about the light like (degenerate) geometry of submanifolds needed to fill a gap in the general theory of submanifolds. The growing importance of light like hypersurfaces in mathematical physics, in particular their extensive use in relativity, and very limited information available on the general theory of lightlike submanifolds, motivated the present authors, in 1990, to do collaborative research on the subject matter of this book. Based on a series of author's papers (Bejancu [3], Bejancu-Duggal [1,3], Dug gal [13], Duggal-Bejancu [1,2,3]) and several other researchers, this volume was conceived and developed during the Fall '91 and Fall '94 visits of Bejancu to the University of Windsor, Canada. The primary difference between the lightlike submanifold and that of its non degenerate counterpart arises due to the fact that in the first case, the normal vector bundle intersects with the tangent bundle of the submanifold. Thus, one fails to use, in the usual way, the theory of non-degenerate submanifolds (cf. Chen [1]) to define the induced geometric objects (such as linear connection, second fundamental form, Gauss and Weingarten equations) on the light like submanifold. Some work is known on null hypersurfaces and degenerate submanifolds (see an up-to-date list of references on pages 138 and 140 respectively). Our approach, in this book, has the following outstanding features: (a) It is the first-ever attempt of an up-to-date information on null curves, lightlike hypersur faces and submanifolds, consistent with the theory of non-degenerate submanifolds.