Interaction between gravitational waves and plasma waves in the Vlasov description

TL;DR

This paper investigates the nonlinear interactions among electromagnetic, electrostatic, and gravitational waves in a Vlasov plasma, deriving simplified coupling coefficients and analyzing energy conservation in a cold plasma context.

Contribution

It introduces an orthonormal tetrad approach to compute three-wave coupling coefficients, simplifying previous algebraic expressions and including back-reaction effects on gravitational waves.

Findings

Coupling coefficients are significantly reduced using the tetrad formalism.

Back-reaction effects on gravitational waves are calculated.

A simple energy conservation law is derived for cold plasma.

Abstract

The nonlinear interaction between electromagnetic, electrostatic and gravitational waves in a Vlasov plasma is reconsidered. By using a orthonormal tetrad description the three-wave coupling coefficients are computed. Comparing with previous results, it is found that the present theory leads to algebraic expression that are much reduced, as compared to those computed using a coordinate frame formalism. Furthermore, here we calculate the back-reaction on the gravitational waves, and a simple energy conservation law is deduced in the limit of a cold plasma.