Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Scientific paper
2002-01-09
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
33 pages, LaTeX 2e, in Gravitation: Following the Prague Inspiration (To celebrate the 60th birthday of Jiri Bicak), O.Semerak
Scientific paper
Exact solutions exist which describe impulsive gravitational waves propagating in Minkowski, de Sitter, or anti-de Sitter universes. These may be either nonexpanding or expanding. Both cases in each background are reviewed here from a unified point of view. All the main methods for their construction are described systematically: the Penrose "cut and paste" method, explicit construction of continuous coordinates, distributional limits of sandwich waves, embedding from higher dimensions, and boosts of sources or limits of infinite accelerations. Attention is concentrated on the most interesting specific solutions. In particular, the nonexpanding impulsive waves that are generated by null multipole particles are described. These generalize the well-known Aichelburg-Sexl and Hotta-Tanaka monopole solutions. Also described are the expanding spherical impulses that are generated by snapping and colliding strings. Geodesics and some other properties of impulsive wave spacetimes are also summarized.
No associations
LandOfFree
Exact impulsive gravitational waves in spacetimes of constant curvature does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Exact impulsive gravitational waves in spacetimes of constant curvature, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Exact impulsive gravitational waves in spacetimes of constant curvature will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-124044