The Bell–Szekeres solution and related solutions of the Einstein–Maxwell equations

Abstract

A novel technique for solving some head-on collisions of plane homogeneous light-like signals in Einstein–Maxwell theory is described. The technique is a by-product of a reexamination of the fundamental Bell–Szekeres solution in this field of study. Extensions of the Bell–Szekeres collision problem to include light-like shells and gravitational waves are described and a family of solutions having geometrical and topological properties in common with the Bell–Szekeres solution is derived.