English

Geodesics for impulsive gravitational waves and the multiplication of distributions

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2009-10-28 v1

Abstract

We consider particle trajectories in the gravitational field of an impulsive pp-wave. Due to the distributional character of the wave profile one inevitably encounters an ambiguous point value θ(0)\theta(0). We show that this ambiguity may be resolved by imposing covariant constancy of the square of the tangent. Our result is consistent with Colombeau's multiplication of distributions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.gr-qc/9607076,
  title  = {Geodesics for impulsive gravitational waves and the multiplication of distributions},
  author = {H. Balasin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/9607076},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

14 pages, latex2e, amstex macros, no figures