We demonstrate that geodesics in exact vacuum Kundt gravitational waves may exhibit a highly complicated behaviour. In fact, as in the previously studied case of non-homogeneous pp-waves, for specific choices of the structural function the motion appears to be genuinely chaotic. This fact is demonstrated by the fractal method.
We derive an exact solution belonging to Kundt class of spacetimes both with and without a cosmological constant that are minimally coupled to a free massless scalar field. We show the algebraic type of these solutions and give interpretation of the results. Subsequently, we look for solutions additionally containing an electromagnetic field satisfying nonlinear field equations.
In recent literature there appeared conflicting claims about whether the Ozsváth-Robinson-Rózga family of type N electrovac spacetimes of the Kundt class with $Λ$ is complete. We show that indeed it is.
Memory effects in the exact Kundt wave spacetimes are shown to arise in the behaviour of geodesics in such spacetimes. The types of Kundt spacetimes we consider here are direct products of the form $H^2\times M(1,1)$ and $S^2\times M(1,1)$. Both geometries have constant scalar curvature. We consider a scenario in which initial velocities of the transverse geodesic coordinates are set to zero (before the arrival of the pulse) in a spacetime with non-vanishing background curvature. We look for changes in the separation between pairs of geodesics caused by the pulse. Any relative change observed …
We explore memory effects for novel Kundt wave spacetimes in the recently proposed Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld (EiBI) theory of gravity. First, we construct new, exact Kundt wave geometries in this theory for two different matter sources--(i) generic matter designed to satisfy the field equations as well as energy conditions, and (ii) electromagnetic field. For both sources we find that the EiBI theory parameter $κ$ couples only with the nonradiative part of the physical metric solution. Thereafter, we solve the geodesic and the geodesic deviation equations, in the above spacetimes with the…
The simple structure of doubly torqued vectors allows for a natural characterization of doubly twisted down to warped spacetimes, as well as Kundt spacetimes down to PP waves. For the first ones the vectors are timelike, for the others they are null. We also discuss some properties, and their connection to hypersurface orthogonal conformal Killing vectors, and null Killing vectors.
In this paper we consider a new approach to studying Kundt spacetimes through $G$-structures. We define a Lie-group $GN$ such that the $GN$-structures satisfying an integrability condition and an existence criterion, which we call Kundt structures, have the property that each metric belonging to the Kundt structure is automatically a Kundt spacetime. We find that the Lie algebra of infinitesimal automorphisms of such structures is given by a Lie algebra of nil-Killing vector fields. Lastly we characterize all left invariant Kundt structures on homogeneous manifolds.
Since all Einstein spacetimes are vacuum solutions to quadratic gravity in four dimensions, in this paper we study various aspects of non-Einstein vacuum solutions to this theory. Most such known solutions are of traceless Ricci and Petrov type N with a constant Ricci scalar. Thus we assume the Ricci scalar to be constant which leads to a substantial simplification of the field equations. We prove that a vacuum solution to quadratic gravity with traceless Ricci tensor of type N and aligned Weyl tensor of any Petrov type is necessarily a Kundt spacetime. This will considerably simplify the sear…
The Gauss-Bonnet gravity is a special case of so-called Quadratic Gravity, which is an extension of Einstein's theory with additional terms in action that are quadratic combinations of the Riemann tensor and its contractions. These corrections are needed, for example, in perturbative quantum gravity. We consider the family of Kundt spacetimes, which is defined in a purely geometrical way by admitting a shear-free, twist-free and expansion-free null geodesic congruence. In particular, we focus on the Kundt solutions without gyratonic terms, and we investigate the constraints imposed by the Eins…
We systematically investigate the complete class of vacuum solutions in the Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity theory which belong to the Kundt family of non-expanding, shear-free and twist-free geometries (without gyratonic matter terms) in any dimension. The field equations are explicitly derived and simplified, and their solutions classified into three distinct subfamilies. Algebraic structures of the Weyl and Ricci curvature tensors are determined. The corresponding curvature scalars directly enter the invariant form of equation of geodesic deviation, enabling us to understand the specific loca…
A pseudo-Riemannian manifold is called CSI if all scalar polynomial invariants constructed from the curvature tensor and its covariant derivatives are constant. In the Lorentzian case, the CSI spacetimes have been studied extensively due to their application to gravity theories. It is conjectured that a CSI spacetime is either locally homogeneous or belongs to the subclass of degenerate Kundt metrics. Independent of this conjecture, any CSI spacetime can be related to a particular locally homogeneous degenerate Kundt metric sharing the same scalar polynomial curvature invariants. In this paper…
Kundt waves belong to the class of spacetimes which are not distinguished by their scalar curvature invariants. We address the equivalence problem for the metrics in this class via scalar differential invariants with respect to the equivalence pseudo-group of the problem. We compute and finitely represent the algebra of those on the generic stratum and also specify the behavior for vacuum Kundt waves. The results are then compared to the invariants computed by the Cartan-Karlhede algorithm.
In our previous paper [Phys. Rev. D 89 (2014) 124029], cited as [1], we attempted to find Robinson-Trautman-type solutions of Einstein's equations representing gyratonic sources (matter field in the form of an aligned null fluid, or particles propagating with the speed of light, with an additional internal spin). Unfortunately, by making a mistake in our calculations, we came to the wrong conclusion that such solutions do not exist. We are now correcting this mistake. In fact, this allows us to explicitly find a new large family of gyratonic solutions in the Robinson-Trautman class of spacetim…
We study universal electromagnetic (test) fields, i.e., p-forms fields F that solve simultaneously (virtually) any generalized electrodynamics (containing arbitrary powers and derivatives of F in the field equations) in n spacetime dimensions. One of the main results is a sufficient condition: any null F that solves Maxwell's equations in a Kundt spacetime of aligned Weyl and traceless-Ricci type III is universal (in particular thus providing examples of p-form Galileons on curved Kundt backgrounds). In addition, a few examples in Kundt spacetimes of Weyl type II are presented. Some necessary …
We study null alignment properties of Weyl tensors related via Kaluza$\unicode{x2013}$Klein reduction of vacuum spacetimes by one spatial Killing direction. Kaluza$\unicode{x2013}$Klein reduction is a method that relates spacetimes of different dimensionality. Weyl tensor null alignment is used in a recently proposed generalization of the Petrov algebraic classification of spacetimes to higher dimensions. Concentrating on the case where the two considered null directions are parallel in a gauge where they are perpendicular to the Maxwell potential, we express the relations between Riemann tens…
Memory effects are studied in the simplest scalar-tensor theory, the Brans--Dicke (BD) theory. To this end, we introduce, in BD theory, novel Kundt spacetimes (without and with gyratonic terms), which serve as backgrounds for the ensuing analysis on memory. The BD parameter $ω$ and the scalar field ($ϕ$) profile, expectedly, distinguishes between different solutions. Choosing specific localised forms for the free metric functions $H'(u)$ (related to the wave profile) and $J(u)$ (the gyraton) we obtain displacement memory effects using both geodesics and geodesic deviation. An interesting and e…
We consider restrictions placed by geodesic completeness on spacetimes possessing a null parallel vector field, the so-called Brinkmann spacetimes. This class of spacetimes includes important idealized gravitational wave models in General Relativity, namely the plane-fronted waves with parallel rays, or pp-waves, which in turn have been intensely and fruitfully studied in the mathematical and physical literatures for over half a century. More concretely, we prove a restricted version of a conjectural analogue for Brinkmann spacetimes of a rigidity result obtained by M.T. Anderson for stationar…
The Johannsen-Psaltis spacetime is a perturbation of the Kerr spacetime designed to avoid pathologies like naked singularities and closed timelike curves. This spacetime depends not only on the mass and the spin of the compact object, but also on extra parameters, making the spacetime deviate from Kerr; in this work we consider only the lowest order physically meaningful extra parameter. We use numerical examples to show that geodesic motion in this spacetime can exhibit chaotic behavior. We study the corresponding phase space by using Poincaré sections and rotation numbers to show chaotic beh…
We determine the class of $p$-forms $F$ which possess vanishing scalar invariants (VSI) at arbitrary order in a $n$-dimensional spacetime. Namely, we prove that $F$ is VSI if and only if it is of type N, its multiple null direction $l$ is "degenerate Kundt", and $\nabla_{l}F=0$. The result is theory-independent. Next, we discuss the special case of Maxwell fields, both at the level of test fields and of the full Einstein-Maxwell equations. These describe electromagnetic non-expanding waves propagating in various Kundt spacetimes. We further point out that a subset of these solutions possesses …
Under a weak assumption of the existence of a geodesic null congruence, we present the general solution of the Einstein field equations in three dimensions with any value of the cosmological constant, admitting an aligned null matter field, and also gyratons (a matter field in the form of a null dust with an additional internal spin). The general local solution consists of the expanding Robinson-Trautman class and the non-expanding Kundt class. The gyratonic solutions reduce to spacetimes with a pure radiation matter field when the spin is set to zero. Without matter fields, we obtain new form…
We have investigated the motion of timelike particles along geodesic in the background of accelerating and rotating black hole spacetime. We confirmed that the chaos exists in the geodesic motion of the particles by Poincaré sections, the power spectrum, the fast Lyapunov exponent indicator and the bifurcation diagram. Moreover, we probe the effects of the acceleration and rotation parameters on the chaotic behavior of a timelike geodesic particle in the black hole spacetime. Our results show that the acceleration brings richer physics for the geodesic motion of particles.
Neutral test particles around a Schwarzschild black hole immersed in an external uniform magnetic field have no interactions of electromagnetic forces, but their motions can be chaotic. This chaotic behavior is induced owing to the gravitational effect of the magnetic field leading to the nonintegrability of the magnetized Ernst-Schwarzschild spacetime geometry. In fact, chaos is strengthened typically with an increase of the energy or the magnetic field under appropriate circumstances. When these test particles have charges, the electromagnetic forces are included. As a result, the electromag…
Timelike geodesics on a hyperplane orthogonal to the symmetry axis of the Gödel spacetime appear to be elliptic-like if standard coordinates naturally adapted to the cylindrical symmetry are used. The orbit can then be suitably described through an eccentricity-semi-latus rectum parametrization, familiar from the Newtonian dynamics of a two-body system. However, changing coordinates such planar geodesics all become explicitly circular, as exhibited by Kundt's form of the Gödel metric. We derive here a one-to-one correspondence between the constants of the motion along these geodesics as well a…
We present firstly the equation of motion for the test scalar particle coupling to the Chern-Simons invariant in Kerr black hole spacetime by the short-wave approximation. We have analyzed the dynamical behaviors of the test coupled particles by applying techniques including Poincaré sections, fast Lyapunov exponent indicator, bifurcation diagram and basins of attraction. It is shown that there exists chaotic phenomenon in the motion of scalar particle interacted with the Chern-Simons invariant in a Kerr black hole spacetime. With the increase of the coupling strength, the motion of the couple…
