Open AccessGravito-electromagnetic approach for the space-time of a plane gravitational wave
Author(s) -
Matteo Luca Ruggiero,
A. Ortolan
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of physics communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2399-6528
DOI - 10.1088/2399-6528/ab9320
Subject(s) - physics , observer (physics) , classical mechanics , curvature , electromagnetic radiation , gravitational wave , gravitation , spacetime , inertial frame of reference , optics , quantum mechanics , geometry , mathematics
We build the Fermi frame associated to the world-line of a reference observer, arbitrary moving in a given space-time, and we show that local measurements can be described in terms of a gravito-electromagnetic analogy, where the gravito-electric and gravito-magnetic fields are related to the non inertial features of the observer’s motion and to the curvature of space-time. We apply this formalism to the space-time of a plane gravitational wave and show that the interaction of the wave with antennas can be explained in terms of gravito-electromagnetic forces acting on test masses. Moreover, we show that, besides the known gravito-electric effects, on which present gravitational waves antennas are based, gravito-magnetic effects could in principle lead to other kinds of detectors.