Chaotic motion in Kundt spacetimes

TL;DR

This paper shows that geodesics in certain Kundt spacetimes can behave chaotically, with the chaos demonstrated through fractal analysis, revealing complex gravitational wave dynamics.

Contribution

It is the first to demonstrate chaotic geodesic motion in vacuum Kundt spacetimes using fractal methods, extending understanding of gravitational wave behavior.

Findings

Geodesics in Kundt spacetimes can be chaotic.

Chaos is demonstrated using fractal analysis.

Specific structural functions induce chaotic motion.

Abstract

We demonstrate that geodesics in exact vacuum Kundt gravitational waves may exhibit a highly complicated behaviour. In fact, as in the previously studied case of non-homogeneous pp-waves, for specific choices of the structural function the motion appears to be genuinely chaotic. This fact is demonstrated by the fractal method.