Soliton geometry and the vacuum gravitational field equations

A soliton geometry is introduced on manifolds with arbitrary dimensions. The usual soliton connection 1-form defined by Crampin et al. is recovered when the soldering form is a 0-form. It is shown that Einstein's vacuum field equations admit a soliton connection and a soldering 1-form. An associated linear equation with a spectral parameter of Einstein's vacuum field equations are found and some properties of this equation are explored. An example of a Bäcklund transformation is also given. © 1989 Kluwer Academic Publishers