Recoil and Ring--Down Effects in Gravitation

TL;DR

This paper models a relativistic shell's deceleration and deformation, showing it emits an impulsive gravitational wave, advancing understanding of gravitational radiation from dynamic mass distributions.

Contribution

It introduces a model of a moving gravitating shell experiencing impulsive deceleration and deformation, highlighting the associated gravitational wave emission.

Findings

The model predicts an impulsive gravitational wave accompanies the shell's deceleration.

Deformation of the shell leads to gravitational radiation emission.

The approach provides insights into gravitational wave generation from relativistic mass movements.

Abstract

We construct a model of a relativistic fireball or light--like shell of matter by considering a spherically symmetric moving gravitating mass experiencing an impulsive deceleration to rest. We take this event to be followed by the mass undergoing a deformation leading to the emission of gravitational radiation while it returns to a spherically symmetric state. We find that the fireball is accompanied by an impulsive gravitational wave.