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For the well-known Schwarzschild solution, if we do a series of transformation(the details are not important here), we get $$ ds^2=-\frac{32M^3e^{-r/2M}}{r}dUdV+r^2(d\theta^2+\sin^2\theta\,d\phi^2).\qquad (1) $$ By making the final transformation $T=(U+V)/2, X=(V-U)/2$, we have $$ ds^2=\frac{32M^3e^{-r/2M}}{r}(-dT^2+dX^2)+r^2(d\theta^2+\sin^2\theta\,d\phi^2).\qquad (2) $$ The relation between the old coordinates $(t,r)$ and the new coordinates $(T,X)$ is given by $$ \left(\frac{r}{2M}-1\right)e^{r/2M}=X^2-T^2,\qquad (3)\\ \frac{t}{2M}=\ln\frac{T+X}{X-T}=2\tanh(T/X),\qquad (4) $$ and in equation $(2)$, $r$ is to be viewed as the function of $X$ and $T$ difined by equation $(3)$.

In Wald's GR, page 154, he commented that

From equation $(3)$ we see that $\nabla_a r=0$ at $X=T=0$, and it is not difficult to verify that the static Killing field $\xi^a$ vanishes there also. Note also that $\nabla_a r$ and $\xi^a$ become collinear along the null lines $X=\pm T$.

I don't understand why we have $\nabla_a r=0$ at $X=T=0$, and also don't understand why $\nabla_a r$ and $\xi^a$ become collinear along the null lines $X=\pm T$. Can someone give an explanation?

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You just compute! Wald is just skipping these steps because they’re “elementary” to work out, and also a good exercise.

First, take the exterior derivative of both sides of equation (3) (use the product rule on the LHS, and simplify… some cancellation will happen) to get \begin{align} \frac{re^{r/2M}}{4M^2}dr&=2XdX-2TdT.\tag{@} \end{align} So, if we plug in $X=T=0$ then the RHS vanishes, while on the LHS, we note that (3) implies $r=2M$. This is a non-zero coefficient of $\frac{e}{2M}$ on the left, and thus $(dr)|_{X=T=0}=0$.

Next, (4) gives you an equation for $dt$ in terms of $dX$ and $dT$. So, combined with the previous equation for $dr$ in terms of $dX,dT$, you ave two equations with two “unknowns”, and you can invert the system of equations to rewrite $dT,dX$ in terms of $dt,dr$. Once you do this calculation, you should be able to prove that in terms of the $(T,X,\theta,\phi)$ coordinate system, the static Killing field $\xi$ is given by \begin{align} \xi&=dT(\xi)\frac{\partial}{\partial T}+dX(\xi)\frac{\partial}{\partial X}\\ &=\frac{1}{4M}\left(X\frac{\partial}{\partial T}+ T\frac{\partial}{\partial X}\right).\tag{$*$} \end{align} Ok very strictly speaking, we only know that this equality holds in region I of the spacetime, which is the common domain of definition of the two coordinate systems $(T,X,\theta,\phi),(t,r,\theta,\phi)$. But now, we observe that the vector field on the right of $(*)$ is well-defined and actually analytic with respect to the global (up to the usual caveats with spherical coordinates) $(T,X,\theta,\phi)$ coordinates. So, we shall use $(*)$ as our definition of the vector field $\xi$ on the maximally extended spacetime. Since the metric $g$ is also analytic, and we know for sure that $\xi$ is a Killing vector field in region I, it follows by uniqueness of analytic continuation that $\xi$ is a Killing field on the entire maximally extended spacetime (which vanishes if and only if $X=T=0$). I’m sure you could try to argue directly that the RHS of $(*)$ is indeed Killing everywhere, but using this analysis fact is much quicker.

Next, to prove collinearity, we need to use the metric-induced isomorphism. We have \begin{align} \begin{cases} g^{\flat}\left(\frac{\partial}{\partial T}\right)&=g_{TT}\,dT+g_{TX}\,dX+g_{T\theta}\,d\theta +g_{T\phi}\,d\phi=-\alpha(r)\,dT\\ g^{\flat}\left(\frac{\partial}{\partial X}\right)&=g_{XT}\,dT+g_{XX}\,dX+g_{X\theta}\,d\theta+g_{X\phi}\,d\phi=\alpha(r)\,dX, \end{cases} \end{align} where $\alpha(r):=\frac{32M^3e^{-r/2M}}{r}$. Therefore, applying $g^{\flat}$ to $(*)$ above (i.e calculating $\xi_a$), we get \begin{align} g^{\flat}(\xi)&=\frac{\alpha(r)}{4M}\left(-X\,dT+T\,dX\right)\equiv A(r)\left(-X\,dT+T\,dX\right). \end{align} Compare this with (@) above, which says $dr=B(r)\left(X\,dX-T\,dT\right)$, for some positive function $B(r)$. Hence, we see that on the null lines $X=\pm T$ (which corresponds to $r=2M$), we have $g^{\flat}(\xi)=\pm\frac{A(2M)}{B(2M)}\,dr$.

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