Solving the characteristic initial value problem for colliding plane gravitational and electromagnetic waves

A method is presented for solving the characteristic initial value problem for the collision and subsequent nonlinear interaction of plane gravitational or gravitational and electromagnetic waves in a Minkowski background. This method generalizes the monodromy transform approach to fields with nonanalytic behaviour on the characteristics inherent to waves with distinct wave fronts. The crux of the method is in a reformulation of the main nonlinear symmetry reduced field equations as linear integral equations whose solutions are determined by generalized (``dynamical'') monodromy data which evolve from data specified on the initial characteristics (the wavefronts).Comment: 4 pages, RevTe

Collision of plane gravitational and electromagnetic waves in a Minkowski background: solution of the characteristic initial value problem

We consider the collisions of plane gravitational and electromagnetic waves with distinct wavefronts and of arbitrary polarizations in a Minkowski background. We first present a new, completely geometric formulation of the characteristic initial value problem for solutions in the wave interaction region for which initial data are those associated with the approaching waves. We present also a general approach to the solution of this problem which enables us in principle to construct solutions in terms of the specified initial data. This is achieved by re-formulating the nonlinear dynamical equations for waves in terms of an associated linear problem on the spectral plane. A system of linear integral ``evolution'' equations which solve this spectral problem for specified initial data is constructed. It is then demonstrated explicitly how various colliding plane wave space-times can be constructed from given characteristic initial data.Comment: 33 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX. Accepted for publication in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Infinite hierarchies of exact solutions of the Einstein and Einstein-Maxwell equations for interacting waves and inhomogeneous cosmologies

For space-times with two spacelike isometries, we present infinite hierarchies of exact solutions of the Einstein and Einstein--Maxwell equations as represented by their Ernst potentials. This hierarchy contains three arbitrary rational functions of an auxiliary complex parameter. They are constructed using the so called `monodromy transform' approach and our new method for the solution of the linear singular integral equation form of the reduced Einstein equations. The solutions presented, which describe inhomogeneous cosmological models or gravitational and electromagnetic waves and their interactions, include a number of important known solutions as particular cases.Comment: 7 pages, minor correction and reduction to conform with published versio

Integrability of the symmetry reduced bosonic dynamics and soliton generating transformations in the low energy heterotic string effective theory

Integrable structure of the symmetry reduced dynamics of massless bosonic sector of the heterotic string effective action is presented. For string background equations that govern in the space-time of $D$ dimensions ($D\ge 4$) the dynamics of interacting gravitational, dilaton, antisymmetric tensor and any number $n\ge 0$ of Abelian vector gauge fields, all depending only on two coordinates, we construct an \emph{equivalent} $(2 d+n)\times(2 d+n)$ matrix spectral problem ($d=D-2$). This spectral problem provides the base for the development of various solution constructing procedures (dressing transformations, integral equation methods). For the case of the absence of Abelian gauge fields, we present the soliton generating transformations of any background with interacting gravitational, dilaton and the second rank antisymmetric tensor fields. This new soliton generating procedure is available for constructing of various types of field configurations including stationary axisymmetric fields, interacting plane, cylindrical or some other types of waves and cosmological solutions.Comment: 4 pages; added new section on Belinski-Zakharov solitons and new expressions for calculation of the conformal factor; corrected typo

Monodromy-data parameterization of spaces of local solutions of integrable reductions of Einstein's field equations

For the fields depending on two of the four space-time coordinates only, the spaces of local solutions of various integrable reductions of Einstein's field equations are shown to be the subspaces of the spaces of local solutions of the ``null-curvature'' equations constricted by a requirement of a universal (i.e. solution independent) structures of the canonical Jordan forms of the unknown matrix variables. These spaces of solutions of the ``null-curvature'' equations can be parametrized by a finite sets of free functional parameters -- arbitrary holomorphic (in some local domains) functions of the spectral parameter which can be interpreted as the monodromy data on the spectral plane of the fundamental solutions of associated linear systems. Direct and inverse problems of such mapping (``monodromy transform''), i.e. the problem of finding of the monodromy data for any local solution of the ``null-curvature'' equations with given canonical forms, as well as the existence and uniqueness of such solution for arbitrarily chosen monodromy data are shown to be solvable unambiguously. The linear singular integral equations solving the inverse problems and the explicit forms of the monodromy data corresponding to the spaces of solutions of the symmetry reduced Einstein's field equations are derived.Comment: LaTeX, 33 pages, 1 figure. Typos, language and reference correction

A note on a canonical dynamical r-matrix

It is well known that a classical dynamical $r$-matrix can be associated with every finite-dimensional self-dual Lie algebra \G by the definition $R(\omega):= f(\mathrm{ad} \omega)$, where \omega\in \G and $f$ is the holomorphic function given by $f(z)={1/2}\coth \frac{z}{2}-\frac{1}{z}$ for z\in \C\setminus 2\pi i \Z^*. We present a new, direct proof of the statement that this canonical $r$-matrix satisfies the modified classical dynamical Yang-Baxter equation on \G.Comment: 17 pages, LaTeX2

The embedding structure and the shift operator of the U(1) lattice current algebra

The structure of block-spin embeddings of the U(1) lattice current algebra is described. For an odd number of lattice sites, the inner realizations of the shift automorphism areclassified. We present a particular inner shift operator which admits a factorization involving quantum dilogarithms analogous to the results of Faddeev and Volkov.Comment: 14 pages, Plain TeX; typos and a terminological mishap corrected; version to appear in Lett.Math.Phy