nLab pp-wave spacetime

Contents

Contents

Idea

A pp-wave spacetime is a spacetime, i.e. an exact solution to Einstein's equations for gravity, containing nothing but radiation (gravitational waves and/or electromagnetic waves) with one fixed wave vector.

The Ricci flat pp-wave spacetimes are examples of universal spacetimes.

Properties

As Penrose limits

Every spacetime looks like a pp-wave near a lightlike geodesic. This is called the Penrose limit. (see Blau 11)

Relation to BMN matrix model

The BMN matrix model (BMN 02, Section 5 and Appendix B) is a deformation of the BFSS matrix model by mass-terms which correspond to a deformation of the Minkowski spacetime background to a pp-wave spacetime.

Examples

References

General

See also

pp-Waves as Penrose limits of AdS p×S qAdS_p \times S^q spacetimes

Discussion of pp-wave spacetimes as Penrose limits (Inönü-Wigner contractions) of AdSp x S^q spacetimes and of the corresponding limit of AdS-CFT duality:

Review:

See also:

  • Michael Gutperle, Nicholas Klein, A Penrose limit for type IIB AdS 6AdS_6 solutions (arXiv:2105.10824)

Last revised on September 22, 2021 at 05:09:28. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.