Soliton solutions in spacetimes with two spacelike killing fields

Pure gravitational plane waves are considered as a special case of spacetimes with two commuting spacelike Killing vector fields. Starting with a midisuperspace that describes this kind of spacetimes, we introduce gauge-fixing and symmetry conditions that remove all non-physical degrees of freedom and ensure that the classical solutions are plane waves. In this way, we arrive at a reduced model with no constraints and whose only degrees of freedom are given by two fields. In a suitable coordinate system, the reduced Hamiltonian that generates the time evolution of this model turns out to vanish, so that all relevant information is contained in the symplectic structure. We calculate this symplectic structure and particularize our discussion to the case of linearly polarized plane waves. The reduced phase space can then be described by an infinite set of annihilation and creation like variables. We finally quantize the linearly polarized model by introducing a Fock representation for these variables.

Quantization of pure gravitational plane waves

Quantum fields interacting with colliding plane waves: particle creation

We study the Bel-Robinson tensor and the velocity field associated with it for the collision of gravitational plane waves. It is shown how this energy tensor provides a rather good physical description of the collision process.

The Bel-Robinson tensor for the collision of gravitational plane waves

Gravitational radiation with roughly spherical wavefronts, produced by roughly spherical black holes or other astrophysical objects, is described by an approximation scheme. The first quasi-spherical approximation, describing radiation propagation on a background, is generalized to include additional non-linear effects, due to the radiation itself. The gravitational radiation is locally defined and admits an energy tensor, satisfying all standard local energy conditions and entering the truncated Einstein equations as an effective energy tensor. This second quasi-spherical approximation thereby includes gravitational radiation reaction, such as the back-reaction on the black hole. With respect to a canonical flow of time, the combined energy–momentum of the matter and gravitational radiation is covariantly conserved. The corresponding Noether charge is a local gravitational mass-energy. Energy conservation is formulated as a local first law relating the gradient of the gravitational mass to work and energy-supply terms, including the energy flux of the gravitational radiation. Zeroth, first and second laws of black-hole dynamics are given, involving a dynamic surface gravity. Local gravitational-wave dynamics is described by a non-linear wave equation. In terms of a complex gravitational-radiation potential, the energy tensor has a scalar-field form and the wave equation is an Ernst equation, holding independently at each spherical angle. The strain to be measured by a distant detector is simply defined.

V. Ferrari

Papers

General Relativity and Gravitation, 1989: Colliding waves in general relativity