Invariant classification of vacuum pp-waves

DOI10.1063/1.4791691MaRDI QIDQ5396294zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Robert Milson, David McNutt, Alan Coley

Publication date 5 February 2014

Published in Journal of Mathematical Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1209.5081

zbMATH Keywords

Cartan invariantequivalence probleminvariant classificationvacuum pp-wave

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Applications of differential geometry to physics (53Z05) Exact solutions to problems in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C15) Classes of solutions; algebraically special solutions, metrics with symmetries for problems in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C20) Gravitational waves (83C35)

Abstract: We solve the equivalence problem for vacuum PP-wave spacetimes by employing the Karlhede algorithm. Our main result is a suite of Cartan invariants that allows for the complete invariant classification of the vacuum pp-waves. In particular, we derive the invariant characterization of the G2 and G3 sub-classes in terms of these invariants. It is known [Collins91] that the invariant classification of vacuum pp-waves requires at most the fourth order covariant derivative of the curvature tensor, but no specific examples requiring the fourth order were known. Using our comprehensive classification, we prove that the q<=4 bound is sharp and explicitly describe all such maximal order solutions.

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Cites work

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• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3703577 (Why is no real title available?)
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Cited in

(9)

• Congruence convergence in pp-wave space-time
• \textit{pp}-wave initial data
• Canonical formulation of pp-waves
• Curvature invariants in type- N spacetimes
• Vacuum plane waves: Cartan invariants and physical interpretation
• Vacuum Kundt waves
• Differential invariants of Kundt waves
• Twistor initial data characterisation of pp-waves
• The equivalence problem for generic four-dimensional metrics with two commuting Killing vectors

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