Electric Field in Gravitational Shockwave Geometry?

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SUMMARY

The discussion focuses on the behavior of electric fields in gravitational shockwave geometries, particularly those created by null shells as outlined in the Dray-'tHooft paper. It highlights that shockwave spacetimes induce shifts in null coordinates, exemplified by the transformation of the coordinate v across the shockwave. The conversation also touches on the implications of electric charge in these scenarios, specifically regarding charged black holes and the behavior of electric fields as they interact with shockwaves. Questions raised include the visualization of electric fields crossing shockwaves and the treatment of boundary conditions for electric fields in these geometries.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of gravitational shockwave geometries
  • Familiarity with null coordinates in general relativity
  • Knowledge of electric fields in the context of charged black holes
  • Basic concepts of boundary conditions in field theory
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the implications of electric fields in gravitational shockwave geometries
  • Study the Dray-'tHooft paper for detailed mathematical formulations
  • Examine boundary conditions for electric fields in general relativity
  • Explore charged black hole solutions and their electric field configurations
USEFUL FOR

The discussion is beneficial for theoretical physicists, researchers in general relativity, and anyone studying the interactions between electric fields and gravitational phenomena.

Physics Monkey
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Hi all,

I'm interested in the behavior of electric fields in a gravitational shockwave geometry. I'm specifically thinking about gravitational shockwaves due to null shells as discussed, for example, in Dray-'tHooft http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0550321385905255 (available here as well http://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/4758).

The basic feature of these shockwave spacetimes is that the shockwave produces a shift in one the null coordinates as the shockwave is crossed. For example, if the shockwave is given by ## u=0 ## then across the shockwave ## v \rightarrow v + \delta v ##. See Fig. 1 in the Dray-'tHooft paper.

One can also find such solutions in systems with electric charge, e.g. a charged black hole (e.g. http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9408169).

My questions are:

1. What does an electric field crossing such a shockwave "look like"? Is it also "carried along" the shockwave for a while? Here I'm trying to get a sense of the physics, e.g. if the horizon in Fig. 1 had one unit of charge one it (+1 on left horizon, -1 on right, no net charge), what would the field lines look like after the shockwave?

2. Is anyone aware of a treatment of boundary conditions of electric fields (or other types of matter) across such a shockwave? 9408169 makes no mention of any special boundary conditions as far as I can tell. The assumption seems to be that nothing singular happens except in the metric and everything else is glued smoothly.

Thanks!
 

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