THE COVARIANT APPROACH TO LRS PERFECT FLUID SPACETIME GEOMETRIES

The dynamics of perfect fluid spacetime geometries which exhibit local rotational symmetry (LRS) are reformulated in the language of a 1 + 3 'threading' decomposition of the spacetime manifold, where covariant fluid and curvature variables are used. This approach presents a neat alternative to the orthonormal frame formalism. The dynamical equation s reduce to a set of differential relations between purely scalar quan tities. The consistency conditions are worked out in a transparent way . We discuss their various subcases in detail and focus in particular on models with higher symmetries within the class of expanding spatial ly inhomogeneous LRS models, via a consideration of functional depende nces between the dynamical variables.