Impulsive waves in de Sitter and anti-de Sitter space-times generated by null particles with an arbitrary multipole structure

TL;DR

This paper introduces a class of impulsive gravitational waves in de Sitter and anti-de Sitter spacetimes, generated by null particles with arbitrary multipole structures, expanding understanding of wave behavior in curved backgrounds.

Contribution

It presents a new class of impulsive gravitational waves in curved spacetimes, detailing their conformal relations and generation mechanisms for different cosmological constants.

Findings

Impulsive waves in de Sitter space are spherical and generated by multipole particles.

In anti-de Sitter space, waves are hyperboloidal and linked to Siklos solutions.

The waves are conformal to Kundt's class and include limits of known solutions.

Abstract

We describe a class of impulsive gravitational waves which propagate either in a de Sitter or an anti-de Sitter background. They are conformal to impulsive waves of Kundt's class. In a background with positive cosmological constant they are spherical (but non-expanding) waves generated by pairs of particles with arbitrary multipole structure propagating in opposite directions. When the cosmological constant is negative, they are hyperboloidal waves generated by a null particle of the same type. In this case, they are included in the impulsive limit of a class of solutions described by Siklos that are conformal to pp-waves.