Chaotic motion in pp-wave spacetimes

We investigate geodesics in non-homogeneous vacuum pp-wave solutions and demonstrate their chaotic behavior by rigorous analytic and numerical methods. For the particular class of solutions considered, distinct "outcomes" (channels to infinity) are identified, and it is shown that the boundary between different outcomes has a fractal structure. This seems to be the first example of chaos in exact radiative spacetimes.Comment: 15 pages (latex),12 figures (gif), to appear in Class. Quantum Gra