2002/03/12 by S Kessari, Smaragda Kessari, D. Singh +5 · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Classical field theory #Classical mechanics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Electromagnetic field #Electromagnetic radiation #Gravitational field #Gravitational wave #Gravitoelectromagnetism #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Maxwell's equations #Physics #Plane wave #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Scattering #Test particle #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0264-9381/19/19/312
published as Class.Quant.Grav. 19 (2002) 4943-4952 · Submitted to Classical and Quantum Gravity. 12 pages
arxiv created 2002/03/12 · openalex publication_date 2002/09/17 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
The Mathisson–Papapetrou–Dixon (MPD) equations for the motion of electrically neutral massive spinning particles are analysed, in the pole–dipole approximation, in an Einstein–Maxwell plane-wave background spacetime. By exploiting the high symmetry of such spacetimes these equations are reduced to a system of tractable ordinary differential equations. Classes of exact solutions are given, corresponding to particular initial conditions for the directions of the particle spin relative to the direction of the propagating background fields. For Einstein–Maxwell pulses a scattering cross-section is defined that reduces, in certain limits, to those associated with the scattering of scalar and Dirac particles based on classical and quantum field theoretic techniques. The relative simplicity of the MPD approach and its use of macroscopic spin distributions suggests that it may have advantages in those astrophysical situations that involve strong classical gravitational and electromagnetic environments.