Abstract. Reconsidering the harmonic space description of the self-dual Einstein equations, we streamline the proof that all self-dual pure gravitational fields allow a local description in terms of an unconstrained analytic prepotential in harmonic space. Our formulation yields a simple recipe for constructing self-dual metrics starting from any explicit choice of such prepotential; and we illustrate the procedure by producing a metric related to the Taub-NUT solution from the simplest monomial choice of prepotential.

PACS numbers: 0420C, 0420J

Print publication: Issue 9 (September 1996)
Received 11 July 1995, in final form 8 July 1996