Abstract
The mathematical theory of gravitational wave-fronts is revisited with the help of orthogonal decomposition techniques. Thus many important well known results about gravitational waves in empty space are readily obtained in the local geometry framework and in general coordinates. Then different kinds of motion in the presence of a wave are investigated. Our study shows that a discontinuity effect, in traversing the wave-front, arises in the motion. The importance of this effect increases with the complexity of the considered particle. No essential discontinuity is present in “simple” motions such as that of a point particle and, differently from what usually believed, that of a dust of particles governed by the geodesic deviation equation.
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