Finsler gravitational waves of $(\alpha,\beta)$-type and their observational signature

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new class of exact solutions in Finsler gravity related to gravitational waves, showing their effects on interferometers are indistinguishable from those predicted by general relativity.

Contribution

The authors develop a new class of $( ext{}\alpha,eta)$-type solutions in Finsler gravity, connecting them to gravitational waves and analyzing their observational signatures.

Findings

Finslerian gravitational waves produce effects on interferometers similar to GR waves.

A modified Randers metric with notable properties is proposed.

The solutions encompass many known exact solutions as special cases.

Abstract

We introduce a new class of $(\alpha,\beta)$-type exact solutions in Finsler gravity closely related to the well-known pp-waves in general relativity. Our class contains most of the exact solutions currently known in the literature as special cases. The linearized versions of these solutions may be interpretted as Finslerian gravitational waves, and we investigate the physical effect of such waves. More precisely, we compute the Finslerian correction to the radar distance along an nterferometer arm at the moment a Finslerian gravitational wave passes a detector. We come to the remarkable conclusion that the effect of a Finslerian gravitational wave on an interferometer is indistinguishable from that of standard gravitational wave in general relativity. Along the way we also physically motivate a modification of the Randers metric and prove that it has some very interesting properties.