Publikace ÚTF

Using the invariant form of the equation of
geodesic deviation, which describes relative motion of free test
particles, we investigate a general family of D-dimensional
Kundt spacetimes. We demonstrate that local influence of the
gravitational field can be naturally decomposed into Newton-
type tidal effects typical for type II spacetimes, longitudinal
deformations mainly present in spacetimes of algebraic type III,
and type N purely transverse effects corresponding to
gravitational waves with D(D − 3)/2 independent polarization
states. We explicitly study the most important examples,
namely exact pp-waves, gyratons, and VSI spacetimes. This
analysis helps us to clarify the geometrical and physical
interpretation of the Kundt class of nonexpanding, nontwisting
and shearfree geometries.