English

Chaotic motion in pp-wave spacetimes

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2009-10-31 v1

Abstract

We investigate geodesics in non-homogeneous vacuum pp-wave solutions and demonstrate their chaotic behavior by rigorous analytic and numerical methods. For the particular class of solutions considered, distinct "outcomes" (channels to infinity) are identified, and it is shown that the boundary between different outcomes has a fractal structure. This seems to be the first example of chaos in exact radiative spacetimes.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.gr-qc/9809065,
  title  = {Chaotic motion in pp-wave spacetimes},
  author = {J. Podolsky and K. Vesely},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/9809065},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

15 pages (latex),12 figures (gif), to appear in Class. Quantum Grav

R2 v1 2026-07-22T12:55:31.114Z