Symmetries of linearized gravity from adjoint operators

Understand

Based on operator identities and their formal adjoints, we derive two symmetry operators for the linearized Einstein operator on vacuum backgrounds of Petrov type D and in particular the Kerr spacetime.

• One of them is of differential order four and coincides with a result of Cohen and Kegeles.
• The other one is a new operator of differential order six.
• The corresponding operator identities are based on the Teukolsky equation and the Teukolsky-Starobinski identities, respectively.