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Title: Gauge invariants of linearized gravity with a general background metric
Abstract In linearized gravity with distributed matter, the background metric has no generic symmetries, and decomposition of the metric perturbation into global normal modes is generally impractical. This complicates the identification of the gauge-invariant part of the perturbation, which is a concern, for example, in the theory of dispersive gravitational waves (GWs) whose energy–momentum must be gauge-invariant. Here, we propose how to identify the gauge-invariant part of the metric perturbation and the six independent gauge invariants per se for an arbitrary background metric. For the Minkowski background, the operator that projects the metric perturbation on the invariant subspace is proportional to the well-known dispersion operator of linear GWs in vacuum. For a general background, this operator is expressed in terms of the Green’s operator of the vacuum wave equation. If the background is smooth, it can be found asymptotically using the inverse scale of the background metric as a small parameter.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1903130
PAR ID:
10463934
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Classical and Quantum Gravity
Volume:
39
Issue:
24
ISSN:
0264-9381
Page Range / eLocation ID:
245003
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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