Memory, Penrose Limits and the Geometry of Gravitational Shockwaves and Gyratons

Abstract

The geometric description of gravitational memory for strong gravitational waves is developed, with particular focus on shockwaves and their spinning analogues, gyratons. Memory, which may be of position or velocity-encoded type, characterises the residual separation of neighbouring `detector' geodesics following the passage of a gravitational wave burst, and retains information on the nature of the wave source. Here, it is shown how memory is encoded in the Penrose limit of the original gravitational wave spacetime and a new `timelike Penrose limit' is introduced to complement the original plane wave limit appropriate to null congruences. A detailed analysis of memory is presented for timelike and null geodesic congruences in impulsive and extended gravitational shockwaves of Aichelburg-Sexl type, and for gyratons. Potential applications to gravitational wave astronomy and to quantum gravity, especially infra-red structure and ultra-high energy scattering, are briefly mentioned.

arXiv comment64 pages, 14 figures. JHEP version plus new appendix on gravitational spin memory

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• Quantum imprints of gravitational shockwaves
• Geodesic congruences in exact plane wave spacetimes and the memory effect
• The First-Order Velocity Memory Effect from Compact Binary Coalescing Sources
• Large Gauge Effects and the Structure of Amplitudes
• From polarized gravitational waves to analytically solvable electromagnetic beams
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• Niederer's transformation, time-dependent oscillators and polarized gravitational waves
• Kundt geometries and memory effects in the Brans-Dicke theory of gravity
• A simple analytic example of the gravitational wave memory effect
• Memory effect and BMS symmetries for extreme black holes
• The analytic structure of amplitudes on backgrounds from gauge invariance and the infra-red
• Memory Effect in Anti-de Sitter Spacetime
• Graviton noise on tidal forces and geodesic congruences
• Cut-and-paste for impulsive gravitational waves with $\Lambda$: The geometric picture
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• Memory Effect of Gravitational Wave Pulses in PP-Wave Spacetimes
• Hidden symmetries from distortions of the conformal structure
• Cut-and-paste for impulsive gravitational waves with $\Lambda$: The mathematical analysis
• Gravitational memory in the bulk
• Gravitational lensing, memory and the Penrose limit
• Classical physics from amplitudes on curved backgrounds
• Interaction of exact gravitational waves with matter