The Newman-Penrose Map and the Classical Double Copy

Abstract: Gauge-gravity duality is arguably our best hope for understanding quantum gravity. Considerable progress has been made in relating scattering amplitudes in certain gravity theories to those in gauge theories---a correspondence dubbed the "double copy". Recently, double copies have also been realized in a classical setting, as maps between exact solutions of gauge theories and gravity. We present here a novel map between a certain class of real, exact solutions of Einstein's equations and self-dual solutions of the flat-space vacuum Maxwell equations. This map, which we call the "Newman-Penrose map", is well-defined even for non-vacuum, non-stationary spacetimes, providing a systematic framework for exploring gravity solutions in the context of the double copy that have not been previously studied in this setting. To illustrate this, we present here the Newman-Penrose map for the Schwarzschild and Kerr black holes, and Kinnersley's photon rocket.