On the gravitational scattering of gravitational waves

Abstract

We discuss the scattering of weak gravitational waves from a slowly rotating gravitational source, having mass M and angular momentum . We start considering the dynamics of a massless spin-2 field propagating in the weak gravitational field of the source, writing down the Fierz–Pauli in the presence of a slightly curved background. We adopt a semiclassical framework, where the gravitational background is described as a classical external field; meanwhile, the spin-2 field is treated quantum mechanically. In the weak-coupling limit, in which the typical wavelength of satisfies (where Rs is the Schwarzschild radius of the source), we obtain the cross-section for the scattering process in the Born approximation. We also discuss helicity asymmetry, showing its relationship with the spin-2 field coupling to the derivatives of the background metric. We finally consider the transition to the case of gravitational wave scattering, showing that—under reasonable assumptions—gravitational waves are expected to follow the same behavior. Our results partly agree with those presented through the years by various authors. The present analysis suggests that the scattering of weak gravitational waves in the field of a macroscopic gravitational source still represents an interesting open issue for further careful investigation.