Generalized plane waves in Poincar\'e gauge theory of gravity

TL;DR

This paper constructs exact vacuum solutions representing generalized plane waves in Poincaré gauge gravity, highlighting the influence of torsion on wave dynamics within a comprehensive Lagrangian framework.

Contribution

It introduces a family of exact solutions for plane waves in Poincaré gauge theory, incorporating all relevant invariants and emphasizing torsion's role.

Findings

Wave solutions depend significantly on spacetime torsion.

The solutions are valid on (anti-)de Sitter backgrounds.

The general Lagrangian includes all parity even and odd invariants.

Abstract

A family of exact vacuum solutions, representing generalized plane waves propagating on the (anti-)de Sitter background, is constructed in the framework of Poincar\'e gauge theory. The wave dynamics is defined by the general Lagrangian that includes all parity even and parity odd invariants up to the second order in the gauge field strength. The structure of the solution shows that the wave metric significantly depends on the spacetime torsion.