Group velocity of gravitational waves in an expanding universe

DOI10.1007/S10714-008-0681-XzbMATH Open1168.83006arXiv0707.1513OpenAlexW2013764886MaRDI QIDQ1016002FDOQ1016002

Vladimír Balek, Vratko Polák

Publication date: 4 May 2009

Published in: General Relativity and Gravitation (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The group velocity of gravitational waves in a flat Friedman-Robertson-Walker universe is investigated. For plane waves with wavelength well inside the horizon, and a universe filled with an ideal fluid with the pressure to density ratio less than 1/3, the group velocity is greater than the velocity of light. As a result, a planar pulse of gravitational waves propagating through the universe during the matter/dark energy dominated era arrives to the observer with the peak shifted towards the forefront. For gravitational waves emitted by inspiralling supermassive black holes at the edge of the observable universe, the typical shift that remains after the effects of nonplanarity are suppressed is of order of ten picoseconds.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/0707.1513

zbMATH Keywords

dispersionblack holesgravitational wavesgroup velocityFriedman-Robertson-Walker universeobservable universenongaussianity

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Relativistic cosmology (83F05) Gravitational waves (83C35)

Cites Work

• Cosmological Inflation and Large-Scale Structure
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Huygens' principle in conformally flat spacetimes
• The Huygens principle and cosmological gravitational waves in the Regge–Wheeler gauge

Cited In (1)

• The group velocity of electromagnetic waves diffracted by a small aperture

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