Gravitational waves with colliding or noncolliding wave fronts

Abstract

The known exact solutions of Einstein's vacuum field equations modeling the gravitational fields of pure gravitational radiation involve wave fronts which are either planar or roughly spherical. We describe a scheme designed to check explicitly whether or not the wave fronts collide. From the spacetime point of view the scheme determines whether or not the null hypersurface histories of the wave fronts intersect and, in particular, allows easy identification of the cases in which the null hypersurfaces do not intersect.