English

Velocity Memory Effect for Polarized Gravitational Waves

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2018-05-23 v2 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

Circularly polarized gravitational sandwich waves exhibit, as do their linearly polarized counterparts, the Velocity Memory Effect: freely falling test particles in the flat after-zone fly apart along straight lines with constant velocity. In the inside zone their trajectories combine oscillatory and rotational motions in a complicated way. For circularly polarized periodic gravitational waves some trajectories remain bounded, while others spiral outward. These waves admit an additional "screw" isometry beyond the usual five. The consequences of this extra symmetry are explored.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1802.09061,
  title  = {Velocity Memory Effect for Polarized Gravitational Waves},
  author = {P. -M. Zhang and C. Duval and G. W. Gibbons and P. A. Horvathy},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1802.09061},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

21 pages, 11 figures. To be published in JCAP

R2 v1 2026-06-23T00:32:50.453Z