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Series

2006

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Physics

Gravitational Waves: Just Plane Symmetry, Charles G. Torre Jan 2006

Gravitational Waves: Just Plane Symmetry, Charles G. Torre

All Physics Faculty Publications

In four spacetime dimensions gravitational plane waves (a special case of the plane-fronted waves with parallel rays) admit a 5 parameter isometry group. We generalize this group to n-dimensions and explore some special features of spacetimes admitting this isometry group. In particular, it is shown that every generally covariant rank-2 symmetric tensor field constructed from a metric with plane wave symmetry will vanish except multiples of the metric and Ricci tensors. We show that, in four spacetime dimensions, a particular enlargement of the plane wave symmetry group is enough to force the group-invariant metrics to satisfy all generally covariant vacuum …


Observables For The Polarized Gowdy Model, Charles G. Torre Jan 2006

Observables For The Polarized Gowdy Model, Charles G. Torre

All Physics Faculty Publications

We give an explicit characterization of all functions on the phase space for the polarized Gowdy 3-torus spacetimes which have weakly vanishing Poisson brackets with the Hamiltonian and momentum constraint functions.


Uniqueness Of Solutions To The Helically Reduced Wave Equation With Sommerfeld Boundary Conditions, Charles G. Torre Jan 2006

Uniqueness Of Solutions To The Helically Reduced Wave Equation With Sommerfeld Boundary Conditions, Charles G. Torre

All Physics Faculty Publications

We consider the helical reduction of the wave equation with an arbitrary source on (n+1)-dimensional Minkowski space, n ≥ 2. The reduced equation is of mixed elliptic-hyperbolic type on Rn. We obtain a uniqueness theorem for solutions on a domain consisting of an n-dimensional ball B centered on the reduction of the axis of helical symmetry and satisfying ingoing or outgoing Sommerfeld conditions on ∂B ≈ Sn−1. Nonlinear generalizations of such boundary value problems (with n = 3) arise in the intermediate phase of binary inspiral in general relativity.