From shockwaves to the gravitational memory effect

He, Temple; Raclariu, Ana-Maria; Zurek, Kathryn M.

doi:10.1007/jhep01(2024)006

Title: From shockwaves to the gravitational memory effect

Journal Article · 02 January 2024 · Journal of High Energy Physics (Online)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep01(2024)006 · OSTI ID:2479755

^[1]; Raclariu, Ana-Maria ^[2]; Zurek, Kathryn M. ^[1]

California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands)

We study the relationship between shockwave geometries and the gravitational memory effect in four-dimensional asymptotically flat spacetime. In particular, we show the ’t Hooft commutation relations of shockwave operators are equivalent to the commutation relation between soft and Goldstone modes parametrizing a sector of the gravitational phase space. We demonstrate this equivalence via a diffeomorphism that takes a shockwave metric to a metric whose transverse traceless component is the gravitational memory. The shockwave momentum in ’t Hooft’s analysis is related to the soft graviton mode, which is responsible for the memory effect, while the shift in the shockwave position is related to the Goldstone mode. This equivalence opens new directions to utilize the gravitational memory effect to explore the observational implications of shockwave geometries in flat space.

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Research Organization:: California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0011632

OSTI ID:: 2479755

Journal Information:: Journal of High Energy Physics (Online), Journal Name: Journal of High Energy Physics (Online) Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 2024; ISSN 1029-8479

Publisher:: Springer NatureCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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