Chapter 16 Gravitational Waves 16-1. Show that the gravitational wave spacetime (16.2) has three Killing vectors: (0,1,0,0), (0,0,1,0), and (1,0,0, 1) Solution: The metric (16.2) is a function only of z ~ ¢. It is therefore unchanged by displacements in «, displacements in y, and simultaneous displacements by the same amount in z and t, These correspond to the three Killing vectors given. 16-2. Consider a Gaussian wave packet with f(t— 2) = aexp|~(t - z)?/0?] (a) Draw a spacetime diagram showing a zx ~¢ slice of spacetime with 0. Shade the region where the wave packet has a size greater that a/2. Show the world line of the test mass at the origin (b) Draw a graph of the distance between the two test masses initially at rest in the given frame, at the origin and at a distance L, along the x—axis. What is the maximum value of the change in that distance? Solution: a) See below, 2 = ollog(a/2))} b) See Figure 16.1; the maximum separation is a/2. au216 CHAPTER 16. GRAVITATI |AL WAVES which makes the semi-major axes L (1+ }asinwt), and the semi-minor axes 1 L(1-}asinut) 16-7. In Section 16.3 we produced a gravitational wave with x polarization by rotating the + polarization (16.2) by 45°. Show that a rotation by an arbitrary angle 6 doesn’t give another independent solution but rather one that could be written as a superposition of + and x. This is one way of seeing that there are only two linearly independent polarizations of a gravitational wave. Solution: Consider just the 2 x 2, -y submatrix of (16.2a) (4) Utilizing (3.9), a rotation by an angle @ would produce 0520 2sin@ cos) 2sin@ cos@ — — cos 20 which can be written as a superposition of + and x. om20({ 2.) +2sineoo ($ ‘) 16-8. [P] a) In a linearly polarized electromagnetic wave the electric field oscillates along one fixed direction in space. What pattern of motion is produced in a ring of test charges like those in Figure 16.2 by a electromagnetic wave propagating in the z-direction that is polarized in the a-direction and normally incident on the plane of the ring. (Neglect the magnetic forces on the charges.) b) Is there a combination of the two gravitational wave polarizations that would produce the same motion? Solution: 216221 across a surface is the momentum density multiplied by c. Show that the magnitude of the momentum density is the energy density divided by Solution: Suppose the surface has area A denote the flux of energy by f and the momentum density by . Ina time At an energy fAt crosses the surface. ‘That is the energy contained in a volume cAt behind the surface. But for zero rest mass particles B = pe. Energy density is therefore cr. The energy contained in a volume of cross-sectional area A and length cA¢ is therefore @xAAt. The flux across the surface is then cn. 16-13, The LIGO gravitational wave detector expects to detect gravitational waves at frequencies of ~ 200Hz that cause a dimensionless strain of 6L/L ~ 10° What is the flux of energy of such waves incident on Earth? If they come from 20 Mpc away how fast was their source losing energy to gravitational waves when they were emitted? How far away would the Sun have to be to produce the same flux in electromagnetic radiation? Solution: Gravitational waves propagate at the speed of light. Therefore, as discussed on in Section 16.16.5, in geometrized units 242 = flux; density) = =~ f= (energy flux) = (energy density) = 5" each term in the above relation having the dimension C-?, The dimensionless amplitude a is comparable to 5L/L [¢f. (16.19)]. The only part of this problem that requires care is converting the geometrized units em~? for flux back to erg/(cm? -s). To do this, note £ GM 1. Ge LT) ~ F Le” F PF so that (f in om“*) g (f in erg/(cm? -s)) Recognizing also that (w in em™!) = ((w in Hz)/e)) one has 3 w \?(6L\? erg 5” iG G a) (7) em? -s 221222 CHAPTER 16. GRAVITATIONAL WAVES Taking w ~ 200 Hz, 5L/L ~ 10-* gives f~2x 1071 erg/(cm? -s) . A star at distance r away with the luminosity of the sun, Lo ~ 4x 10erg/s, would give a flux A star of the sun’s luminosity would give the same flux in electromagnetic radiation at a distance of ~ 0.01 pe. 16-14. [B] The binary star system + Boo is located about 11.7 parsecs from Earth in the direction of the constellation Bodtes. (1 parsec = 3.09 x 10 cm.) The two stars orbit each other with a period of approximately 6.5 hours. A gravitational wave detector in the vicinity of Earth detects gravitational radiation from this source with a strain of 6L/L ~ 10-". Estimate the energy flux in this radiation at the Earth and compare to that of the Sun in electromagnetic radiation if it were located the same distance away. (Gravitational wave detectors contemplated on Barth can’t make this detection because the frequency of the wave is too low, but detectors in space might be able to do it.) Solution: We estimate the amplitude of the gravitational wave as a ~ L/L from (16.11) or similar equations. ‘The flux from (16.22) is Set) where P is the period of the orbit and assuming w ~ 2x/P. (It’s actually twice that value as we'll see in Section 23). Using P=65 br~ 2x 10's~ 7x 10" em and a ~ 107! we find ow ~ 107” em* in geometrized units. Multiplying by c°/G converts this to usual MLS units ow ~ 10-™ erg/ (em? - 8) 222PROBLEM 16.14 223 ‘The flux from the Sun were it d= 11.7 pe away would be 3.8 x 10° erg/s . 2 ie (LT pox 3x10" om/po? 2% 107 ere/(em?-s). ‘The flux in gravitational waves is a million times smaller than from a star like the Sun at that distance. 223