2023/12/30 by R. Chan, Chan, R., M. F. A. da Silva +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2401.00339
openalex publication_date 2023/12/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Along the lines of the Einstein-Rosen wave equation of General Relativity (GR), we derive a gravitational wave equation with cylindrical symmetry in the Einstein-aether (EA) theory. We show that the gravitational wave in the EA is periodic in time for both the metric functions Ψ(r,t) and H(r,t). However, in GR, Ψ(r,t) is periodic in time, but H(r,t) is semi-periodic in time, having a secular drifting in the wave frequency. The evolution of wave pulses of a given width is entirely different in both theories in the H(r,t) metric function due to this frequency drifting. Another fundamental difference between the two theories is the gravitational wave velocity. While in GR, the waves propagate with the speed of light, in EA, there is no upper limit to the wave velocity, reaching infinity if c13 → 1 and zero if c13 → -∞. We also show that energy-momentum pseudotensor and superpotential get contributions from aether in addition to the usual gravitational field part. All these characteristics are observational signatures that differentiate GR and EA.