Screw-symmetric gravitational waves: A double copy of the vortex

Publication date: 10 July 2018Source: Physics Letters B, Volume 782Author(s): A. IldertonAbstractPlane gravitational waves can admit a sixth ‘screw’ isometry beyond the usual five. The same is true of plane electromagnetic waves. From the point of view of integrable systems, a sixth isometry would appear to over-constrain particle dynamics in such waves; we show here, though, that no effect of the sixth isometry is independent of those from the usual five. Many properties of particle dynamics in a screw-symmetric gravitational wave are also seen in a (non-plane-wave) electromagnetic vortex; we make this connection explicit, showing that the screw-symmetric gravitational wave is the classical double copy of the vortex.

Source: Physics Letters B - July 10, 2018 Category: Physics Source Type: research