Geodesics in Impulsive Vacuum Spacetimes with a Cosmological Constant
Robert Svarc
(Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic)
Coauthor(s): Jiri Podolsky
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The influence of expanding spherical impulsive gravitational waves, propagating in Minkowski, de Sitter and anti-de Sitter universe, on geodesics is studied. The refraction formulae which identify the positions and the velocity vector inclination of free test particles on both sides of the impulse are derived. These results are visualized in the case of the impulsive wave generated by a snapping cosmic string.