Spinning Particles in Twisted Gravitational Wave Spacetimes

Abstract

Twisted gravitational waves (TGWs) are nonplanar waves with twisted rays that move along a fixed direction in space. We study further the physical characteristics of a recent class of Ricci-flat solutions of general relativity representing TGWs with wave fronts that have negative Gaussian curvature. In particular, we investigate the influence of TGWs on the polarization of test electromagnetic waves and on the motion of classical spinning test particles in such radiation fields. To distinguish the polarization effects of twisted waves from plane waves, we examine the theoretical possibility of existence of spin-twist coupling and show that this interaction is generally consistent with our results.

27 pages, RevTex macros, v2: typos corrected, reference added, v3: slightly expanded version, v4: new Appendix A, references added; v5: reference added, matches published version; v6: typos corrected in the sentence following Eq. (C7)

References in corpus (6)

• Dynamics of Extended Spinning Masses in a Gravitational Field
• The Magnetic Part of the Weyl Tensor, and the Expansion of Discrete Universes
• Deviation and precession effects in the field of a weak gravitational wave
• Twisted Gravitational Waves
• Anisotropic Gravitational Collapse and Cosmic Jets
• Dirac particles in a gravitational shock wave

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Memory effects in Kundt wave spacetimes
• Twisted Gravitational Waves of Petrov Type D
• Twisted Gravitational Waves in the Presence of a Cosmological Constant
• Spin-of-Light Gyroscope and the Spin-Rotation Coupling
• Vacuum gravitational fields with a null Killing vector
• Spin-Gravity Coupling in a Rotating Universe
• Elliptically Polarized Plane Gravitational Waves
• Unified Evolution of Electromagnetic Sources in Homogeneous Fields