Dirac particles in a gravitational shock wave

TL;DR

This paper uses the Newman-Penrose formalism to analyze how a gravitational wave pulse affects the spin states of Dirac particles, providing insights into quantum behavior in curved spacetime.

Contribution

It introduces a method to calculate Dirac particle eigenstates in a gravitational wave background and examines spin polarization changes caused by the wave.

Findings

Calculated positive energy momentum eigenstates for Dirac particles in a gravitational wave

Determined spin polarization changes after gravitational wave interaction

Provided a framework for quantum particle behavior in curved spacetime

Abstract

Using the Newman-Penrose formalism we calculate the positive energy momentum eigenstates of the Dirac equation for a plane polarized grav- itational wave pulse. We then consider Dirac particles whose spins are polarized in each orthonormal coordinate direction prior to the arrival of the gravitational wave pulse, and determine how the spins are changed by the pulse after its departure.