Spacetime symmetries and topology in bimetric relativity

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.