Elliptically Polarized Plane Gravitational Waves
Abstract
Exact plane gravitational radiation fields are presented within the framework of general relativity and their properties are described. The physics of nonlinear elliptically polarized plane gravitational waves is developed in close analogy with electromagnetic waves. The motion of free test particles in the dynamic gravitational fields of elliptically polarized plane waves is investigated. In particular, we demonstrate the cosmic jet property of these spacetimes, namely, most timelike geodesics tend to line up in the direction of wave propagation and produce a cosmic jet whose speed asymptotically approaches the speed of light.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2501.11503,
title = {Elliptically Polarized Plane Gravitational Waves},
author = {Masoud Molaei and Shant Baghram and Bahram Mashhoon},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.11503},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
39 pages, 2 figures; v2: eq.(66) added, typos corrected; v3: presentation improved, references added, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D; v4: typos corrected