617 research outputs found
The gravitational wave rocket
Einstein's equations admit solutions corresponding to photon rockets. In
these a massive particle recoils because of the anisotropic emission of
photons. In this paper we ask whether rocket motion can be powered only by the
emission of gravitational waves. We use the double series approximation method
and show that this is possible. A loss of mass and gain in momentum arise in
the second approximation because of the emission of quadrupole and octupole
waves.Comment: 10 pages LaTe
Closed timelike curves in general relativity
Many solutions of Einstein's field equations contain closed timelike curves
(CTC). Some of these solutions refer to ordinary materials in situations which
might occur in the laboratory, or in astrophysics. It is argued that, in
default of a reasonable interpretation of CTC, general relativity does not give
a satisfactory account of all phenomena within its terms of reference.Comment: 3 pages, PACS: 042
Electromagnetic radiation produces frame dragging
It is shown that for a generic electrovacuum spacetime, electromagnetic
radiation produces vorticity of worldlines of observers in a Bondi--Sachs
frame. Such an effect (and the ensuing gyroscope precession with respect to the
lattice) which is a reminiscence of generation of vorticity by gravitational
radiation, may be linked to the nonvanishing of components of the Poynting and
the super--Poynting vectors on the planes othogonal to the vorticity vector.
The possible observational relevance of such an effect is commented.Comment: 8 pages RevTex 4-1; updated version to appear in Physical Review
Detection of the gravitomagnetic clock effect
The essence of the gravitomagnetic clock effect is properly defined showing
that its origin is in the topology of world lines with closed space
projections. It is shown that, in weak field approximation and for a
spherically symmetric central body, the loss of synchrony between two clocks
counter-rotating along a circular geodesic is proportional to the angular
momentum of the source of the gravitational field. Numerical estimates are
presented for objects within the solar system. The less unfavorable situation
is found around Jupiter.Comment: 14 pages; Latex. To be published on Classical and Quantum Gravit
Regular and quasi black hole solutions for spherically symmetric charged dust distributions in the Einstein-Maxwell theory
Static spherically symmetric distributions of electrically counterpoised dust
(ECD) are used to construct solutions to Einstein-Maxwell equations in
Majumdar--Papapetrou formalism. Unexpected bifurcating behaviour of solutions
with regard to source strength is found for localized, as well as for the
delta-function ECD distributions. Unified treatment of general ECD
distributions is accomplished and it is shown that for certain source strengths
one class of regular solutions approaches Minkowski spacetime, while the other
comes arbitrarily close to black hole solutions.Comment: LaTeX (IOP style) 17 pages, 10 figure
Comment on the new AdS universe
We show that Bonnor's new Anti-de Sitter (AdS) universe and its D-dimensional
generalization is the previously studied AdS soliton.Comment: 2 pages; version 2: major changes including the titl
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