We explore spacetime symmetries and topologies of the two metric sectors in Hassan-Rosen bimetric theory. We show that, in vacuum, the two sectors can either share or have separate spacetime symmetries. If stress-energy tensors are present, a third case can arise, with different spacetime symmetries within the same sector. This raises the question of the best definition of spacetime symmetry in Hassan-Rosen bimetric theory. We emphasize the possibility of imposing ansatzes and looking for solutions having different Killing vector fields or different isometries in the two sectors, which has gained little attention so far. We also point out that the topology of spacetime imposes a constraint on possible metric combinations.

We consider the Hassan-Rosen bimetric field equations in vacuum when the two metrics share a single common null direction in a spherically symmetric configuration. By solving these equations, we obtain a class of exact solutions of the generalized Vaidya type parametrized by an arbitrary function. Besides not being asymptotically flat, the found solutions are nonstationary admitting only three global spacelike Killing vector fields which are the generators of spatial rotations. Hence, these are spherically symmetric bimetric vacuum solutions with the minimal number of isometries. The absence of staticity formally disproves an analogue statement to Birkhoff's theorem in the ghost-free bimetric theory which would state that a spherically symmetric solution is necessarily static in empty space.

We study general properties of static and spherically symmetric bidiagonal black holes in Hassan-Rosen bimetric theory by means of a new method. In particular, we explore the behavior of the black hole solutions both at the common Killing horizon and at the large radii. The former study was never done before and leads to a new classification for black holes within the bidiagonal ansatz. The latter study shows that, among the great variety of the black hole solutions, the only solutions converging to Minkowski, anti-de Sitter, and de Sitter spacetimes at large radii are those of general relativity, i.e., the Schwarzschild, Schwarzschild-anti-de Sitter and Schwarzschild-de Sitter solutions. Moreover, we present a proposition, whose validity is not limited to black hole solutions, which establishes the relation between the curvature singularities of the two metrics and the invertibility of their interaction potential.

The two lapse functions in the Hassan–Rosen bimetric theory are not independent. Without knowing the relation between them, one cannot evolve the equations in the 3+1 formalism. This work computes the ratio of lapses for the spherically symmetric case, which is a prerequisite for numerical bimetric relativity.

Numerical integration of the field equations in bimetric relativity is necessary to obtain solutions describing realistic systems. Thus, it is crucial to recast the equations  as a well-posed problem. In general relativity, under certain assumptions, the covariant BSSN formulation is a strongly hyperbolic formulation of the Einstein equations, hence its Cauchy problem is well-posed. In this paper, we establish the covariant BSSN formulation of the bimetric field equations. It shares many features with the corresponding formulation in general relativity, but there are a few fundamental differences between them. Some of these differences depend on the gauge choice and alter the hyperbolic structure of the system of partial differential equations compared to general relativity. Accordingly, the strong hyperbolicity of the system cannot be claimed yet, under the same assumptions as in general relativity. In the paper, we stress the differences compared with general relativity and state the main issues that should be tackled next, to draw a roadmap towards numerical bimetric relativity.

The choice of gauge in numerical relativity is crucial in avoiding coordinate and curvature singularities. In addition, the gauge can affect the well-posedness of the system. In this work, we consider the mean gauges, established with respect to the geometric mean metric in bimetric relativity. We consider three gauge conditions widely used in numerical relativity, and compute them with respect to the geometric mean: The gauge condition and the maximal slicing for the lapse function of , and the -driver gauge condition for the shift vector of . In addition, in the bimetric covariant BSSN formalism, there are other arbitrary choices to be made before evolving the system. We show that it is possible to make them by using the geometric mean metric, which is determined dynamically by the system, rather than using an arbitrary external metric, as in general relativity. These choices represent opportunities to recast the system in a well-posed form.

We present bimEX, a Mathematica package for exact computations in 3 + I bimetric relativity. It is based on the xAct bundle, which can handle computations involving both abstract tensors and their components. In this communication, we refer to the latter case as concrete computations. The package consists of two main parts. The first part involves the abstract tensors, and focuses on how to deal with multiple metrics in xAct. The second part takes an ansatz for the primary variables in a chart as the input, and returns the covariant BSSN bimetric equations in components in that chart. Several functions are implemented to make this process as fast and user-friendly as possible. The package has been used and tested extensively in spherical symmetry and was the workhorse in obtaining the bimetric covariant BSSN equations and reproducing the bimetric 3+1 equations in the spherical polar chart. Program summary Program Title: bimEX Program Files doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/2s5d7csc9w.1 Licensing provisions: GNU General Public License 3.0 Programming language: Mathematica Supplementary material: 1. README file, containing instructions about how to use the working example. 2. Working example, constituted by the notebooks: (a) bimEX_Working_Example.nb (b) bimEX_Decomposition_Lists_Loader.nb (c) bimEX_Decomposition_xAct_Loader.nb Nature of problem: Writing the bimetric covariant BSSN equations in any desired ansatz and chart. Solution method: Definition of functions within the Mathematica package xAct, which computes all the components of the defined abstract tensors and reduce the abstract tensors to their representation in components. Additional comments: GitHub repository at https://github.com/nubirel/bimEX