THE HARMONIC AND NULL DESCRIPTIONS OF GRAVITATIONAL RADIATION,
Abstract
The problem of an axially symmetric space-time containing gravitational waves in the usual Bondi null coordinate system is considered. This Bondi frame is then related to asymptotically harmonic coordinates by means of a characteristic initial value problem. The resultant functional relationship between the null and asymptotically harmonic frames is used to transform Bondi's radiative metric into its equivalent asymptotically harmonic form. This is then compared to the radiative solution which Fock has calculated directly using harmonic coordinates. In agreement with Fock, one finds that the harmonic form of the radiation metric contains logarithmic terms. The treatment clearly shows that these logarithmic metric components do not result from the well known logarithmic terms in the harmonic coordinate description of the light cones for Schwarzschild-like geometries. The principal result of this paper is that they arise from higher order radiative corrections.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1968
- Accession Number
- AD0666049
Entities
People
- Jeffrey Winicour
- Richard A. Isaacson
Organizations
- Air Force Research Laboratory