Total intrinsic spin for plane gravity waves

Abstract

A quantity which measures total intrinsic spin along the z axis is constructed for planar gravity (fields dependent on z and t only), in both the Ashtekar complex connection formalism and in geometrodynamics. The total spin is conserved but (surprisingly) is not a surface term. This constant of the motion coincides with one of four observables previously discovered by Husain and Smolin. Two more of those observables can be interpreted physically as raising and lowering operators for total spin.

14 pages; LaTex

References in corpus (3)

• Anomaly-free formulation of non-perturbative, four-dimensional Lorentzian quantum gravity
• Open-Flux Solutions to the Constraints for Plane Gravity Waves
• Closed-Flux Solutions to the Constraints for Plane Gravity Waves

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Quantization of pure gravitational plane waves
• Towards Loop Quantization of Plane Gravitational Waves
• Energy and directional signatures for plane quantized gravity waves
• Plane waves in quantum gravity: breakdown of the classical spacetime
• Quantum volume and length fluctuations in a midi-superspace model of Minkowski space
• Plane wave holonomies in loop quantum gravity II: sine wave solution