Self-interacting gas in a gravitational wave field

TL;DR

This paper explores how a self-interacting relativistic gas responds to a gravitational wave, revealing stationary states with negative entropy production and microscopic instabilities, akin to self-organization phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces an exactly solvable model showing how forces can counteract gravitational wave effects on a relativistic gas, highlighting self-organization-like features.

Findings

Stationary states with negative entropy production

Microscopic particle motion instabilities

Self-organization-like phenomena in relativistic gases

Abstract

We investigate a relativistic self-interacting gas in the field of an external {\it pp} gravitational wave. Based on symmetry considerations we ask for those forces which are able to compensate the imprint of the gravitational wave on the macroscopic 4-acceleration of the gaseous fluid. We establish an exactly solvable toy model according to which the stationary states which characterize such a situation have negative entropy production and are accompanied by instabilities of the microscopic particle motion. These features are similar to those which one encounters in phenomena of self-organization in many-particle systems.