On the Energy-Momentum Density of Gravitational Plane Waves

Abstract

By embedding Einstein's original formulation of GR into a broader context we show that a dynamic covariant description of gravitational stress-energy emerges naturally from a variational principle. A tensor $T^G$ is constructed from a contraction of the Bel tensor with a symmetric covariant second degree tensor field $\Phi$ and has a form analogous to the stress-energy tensor of the Maxwell field in an arbitrary space-time. For plane-fronted gravitational waves helicity-2 polarised (graviton) states can be identified carrying non-zero energy and momentum.

10 pages, no figures

References in corpus (2)

• New electromagnetic conservation laws
• A Note on Matter Superenergy Tensors

Cited by in corpus (8)

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• On the energy transported by exact plane gravitational-wave solutions
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• Matter coupling in Minimal Massive 3D Gravity and spinor-matter interactions in exterior algebra formalism
• Spin-1/2 and spin-3/2 field solutions in plane wave spacetimes
• Generalized Sparling-Thirring form in the Brans-Dicke theory