All Physics Faculty Publications
Document Type
Article
Journal/Book Title/Conference
General Relativity and Gravitation
Volume
38
Issue
4
Publisher
Springer Verlag
Publication Date
2006
First Page
653
Last Page
662
Abstract
In four spacetime dimensions gravitational plane waves (a special case of the plane-fronted waves with parallel rays) admit a 5 parameter isometry group. We generalize this group to n-dimensions and explore some special features of spacetimes admitting this isometry group. In particular, it is shown that every generally covariant rank-2 symmetric tensor field constructed from a metric with plane wave symmetry will vanish except multiples of the metric and Ricci tensors. We show that, in four spacetime dimensions, a particular enlargement of the plane wave symmetry group is enough to force the group-invariant metrics to satisfy all generally covariant vacuum equations. We comment on the construction of a “mini-superspace” description of spacetimes admitting plane wave symmetry.
Recommended Citation
C. Torre, Gravitational waves: just plane symmetry, General Relativity and Gravitation, vol. 38(4), Apr. 2006, pp. 653-662.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/w18l65377w52221l/?p=e7b9f640bea14c999ffbef15cc16d213π=11
Comments
Originally published by Springer Verlag. Publisher's PDF can be accessed through General Relativity and Gravitation. Article also available through arXiv.org.