Memory effect, conformal symmetry and gravitational plane waves

TL;DR

This paper explores how classical particles interact with gravitational plane waves, emphasizing conformal symmetry, and provides new insights into scattering, memory effects, and impulsive wave limits.

Contribution

It reveals the role of conformal symmetry in gravitational plane waves and offers a detailed analysis of particle interactions, including impulsive wave limits and coordinate descriptions.

Findings

Conformal symmetry governs particle interactions with gravitational plane waves.

Derived conditions for describing interactions using Baldwin-Jeffery-Rosen coordinates.

Analyzed scattering and memory effects in impulsive gravitational waves.

Abstract

We discuss in some detail the interaction of classical particles, including the scattering and memory effect, with a pulse of gravitational plane wave. The key point is the conformal symmetry of gravitational plane waves. In particular, we obtain, in the limit of short pulse, some results for impulsive gravitational waves. Furthermore, in the general case, we give certain conditions which allow us to completely describe the interaction in terms of the singular Baldwin-Jeffery-Rosen coordinates.