Colliding Impulsive Gravitational Waves and a Cosmological Constant

Abstract

We present a space--time model of the collision of two homogeneous, plane impulsive gravitational waves (each having a delta function profile) propagating in a vacuum before collision and for which the post collision space--time has constant curvature. The profiles of the incoming waves are $k\delta (u)$ and $l\delta (v)$ where $k,l$ are real constants and $u=0,v=0$ are intersecting null hypersurfaces. The cosmological constant $\Lambda$ in the post collision region of the space--time is given by $\Lambda =-6kl$.

12 pages, Latex file, published paper

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