On rotating plane-fronted waves and their Poincaré-invariant differential geometry
- 1 September 1979
- journal article
- research article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Journal of Mathematical Physics
- Vol. 20 (9) , 1851-1860
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.524302
Abstract
After reviewing the rotating plane‐fronted wave type solutions of the scalar wave equation and Maxwell’s vacuum equations in flat space (we point out that there are Yang–Mill analogs as well), we study their Poincaré‐invariant geometry by discussing their characteristic differential invariants and a noninertial curvilinear coordinate system canonically associated with them. In one of the appendices we treat the shearfree and the nondiverging null hypersurfaces in complex Minkowski space, in another one we derive the Yang–Mills version of Robinson’s theorem on null electromagnetic fields.Keywords
This publication has 8 references indexed in Scilit:
- Non-Abelian plane wavesPhysics Letters B, 1977
- A space-time calculus based on pairs of null directionsJournal of Mathematical Physics, 1973
- Solutions of the Einstein and Einstein-Maxwell EquationsJournal of Mathematical Physics, 1969
- Another Interpretation of the Optical ScalarsJournal of Mathematical Physics, 1968
- Null Electromagnetic FieldsJournal of Mathematical Physics, 1961
- The plane-fronted gravitational wavesThe European Physical Journal A, 1961
- The apparent shape of a relativistically moving sphereMathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 1959
- Simple progressive solutions of the wave equationMathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 1947