caa a22 4500 467887357 CHVBK 20180406152738.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170328e20060401xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10714-006-0255-8 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10714-006-0255-8 Torre C. Department of Physics, Utah State University, 84322-4415, Logan, UT, USA aut Gravitational waves: just plane symmetry [Elektronische Daten] [C. Torre] In four spacetime dimensions gravitational plane waves (a special case of the plane-fronted waves with parallel rays) admit a 5 parameter isometry group. We generalize this group to n-dimensions and explore some special features of spacetimes admitting this isometry group. In particular, it is shown that every generally covariant rank-2 symmetric tensor field constructed from a metric with plane wave symmetry will vanish except multiples of the metric and Ricci tensors. We show that, in four spacetime dimensions, a particular enlargement of the plane wave symmetry group is enough to force the group-invariant metrics to satisfy all generally covariant vacuum equations. We comment on the construction of a "mini-superspace” description of spacetimes admitting plane wave symmetry. Springer-Verlag, 2006 Plane wave nationallicence Isometry group nationallicence General Relativity and Gravitation Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers; http://www.springer-ny.com 38/4(2006-04-01), 653-662 0001-7701 38:4<653 2006 38 10714 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-006-0255-8 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-006-0255-8 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Torre C. Department of Physics, Utah State University, 84322-4415, Logan, UT, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- General Relativity and Gravitation Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers; http://www.springer-ny.com 38/4(2006-04-01), 653-662 0001-7701 38:4<653 2006 38 10714 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer