Selected Honorable Mention EssayNo Access

A Poynting theorem formulation for the gravitational wave stress pseudo tensor

Department of Physics, Astrophysics, University of Oxford, Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, UK

E-mail Address: steven.balbus@physics.ox.ac.uk

https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218271821420037Cited by:1 (Source: Crossref)

This article is part of the issue:

SPECIAL ISSUE: Selected Essays from the Annual Essay Competition of the Gravity Research Foundation 2021
Editor: D. V. Ahluwalia

Abstract

A very simple and physical derivation of the conservation equation for the propagation of gravitational radiation is presented. The formulation is exact. The result takes the readily recognisable and intuitive form of a Poynting-style equation, in which the outward propagation of stress energy is directly related to the volumetric equivalent of a radiation reaction force acting back upon the sources, including the purely gravitational contribution to the sources. Upon averaging, the emergent pseudo tensor for the gravitational radiation is in exact agreement with that found by much more labour-intensive methods.

This essay received an Honorable Mention in the 2021 Essay Competition of the Gravity Research Foundation.

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