Energetics of the Einstein-Rosen spacetime

A study covering some aspects of the Einstein–Rosen metric is presented. The electric and magnetic parts of the Weyl tensor are calculated. It is shown that there are no purely magnetic E–R spacetimes, and also that a purely electric E–R spacetime is necessarily static. The geodesics equations are found and circular ones are analyzed in detail. The super–Poynting and the ``Lagrangian’’ Poynting vectors are calculated and their expressions are found for two specific examples. It is shown that for a pulse–type solution, both expressions describe an inward radially directed flow of energy, far behind the wave front. The physical significance of such an effect is discussed.