Gravitons in Minkowski space-time interactions and results of astrophysical interest

Abstract

A review is presented of the quantization procedures applicable to linear gravitational fields in Minkowski space-time and of various interactions processes involving gravitons. The discussion is mainly concerned with those processes that in the Feynman diagrammatic approach involve gravitons on external lines and are of particular astrophysical interest because of their contribution to background gravitational radiation in the universe. More specifically they are graviton production from particle-antiparticle annihilation, gravitational bremsstrahlung, scattering of gravitons and photoproduction. Among the topics discussed are also, the graviton-particle vertex and some of its applications, and the problem of coherent emission of gravitational radiation in the laboratory.