Institute of Theoretical Physics · Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University
Class. Quantum Grav. 16(0), 3599-3618 (1999)
Recent results demonstrating the chaotic behaviour of geodesics in non - homogeneous vacuum pp-wave solutions are generalized. Here, the authors concentrate on motion in non - homogeneous sandwich pp-waves and show that chaos smears as the duration of these gravitational waves is reduced. As the number of radial bounces of any geodesic decreases, the outcome channels to infinity become fuzzy, and thus the fractal structure of the initial conditions characterizing chaos is cut at lower and lower levels. In the limit of impulsive waves, the motion is fully non-chaotic. This is proved by presenting the geodesics in a simple explicit form which permits a physical interpretation, and demonstrates the focusing effect.
Gravitation Theory: Gravitational Radiation
@article{UTF153,
author = {Podolský, J and Vesely, K.},
title = {{Smearing of chaos in sandwich pp-waves.}},
journal = {Class. Quantum Grav.},
volume = {16},
number = {0},
pages = {3599-3618},
year = {1999},
doi = {10.1088/0264-9381/16/11/310},
eprint = {gr-qc/9909012},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/0264-9381/16/11/310/q91110.pdf},
}