Thin shells in general relativity and cosmology: The lightlike limit

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Abstract
This paper shows how the structure and dynamics of a thin shell traveling at the speed of light can be obtained from a simple and convenient prescription that is a straightforward extension and continuous limit of the familiar extrinsic-curvature algorithm for subluminal shells. It allows the space-time coordinates to be chosen freely and independently on the two sides of the shell. The prescription is applied to several examples of interest in general relativity and cosmology.