Displacement versus velocity memory effects from a gravitational plane wave

Abstract

Abstract This article demonstrates that additionally to the well-known velocity memory effect, a vacuum gravitational plane wave can also induce a displacement memory on a couple of test particles. A complete classification of the conditions under which a velocity or a displacement memory effect occur is established. These conditions depend both the initial conditions of the relative motion and on the wave profile. The two cases where the wave admits a pulse or a step profile are treated. Our analytical expressions are then compared to numerical integrations to exhibit either a velocity or a displacement memory, in the case of these two families of profiles. Additionally to this classification, the existence of a new symmetry of polarized vacuum gravitational plane wave under Möbius reparametrization of the null time is demonstrated. Finally, we discuss the resolution of the geodesic deviation equation by means of the underlying symmetries of vacuum gravitational plane wave.