Killing-Yano forms of a class of spherically symmetric space-times: A unified generation of higher forms

Killing-Yano (KY) 2- and 3-forms of a class of spherically symmetric space-times that includes the well-known Minkowski, Schwarzschild, Reissner-Nordstrom, Robertson-Walker, and six different forms of de Sitter space-times as special cases are derived in a unified and exhaustive manner. It is directly proved that while the Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordstrom space-times do not accept any KY 3-form and they accept only one 2-form, the Robertson-Walker space-time admits four KY 2-forms and only one KY 3-form. Maximal number of KY forms is obtained for Minkowski and all known forms of de Sitter space-times. Complete lists comprising explicit expressions of KY forms are given. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3290761]