Curvature Dynamics in General Relativity

Abstract

The equations of general relativity are recast in the form of a wave equation for the Weyl tensor. This allows reformulation of gravitational wave theory in terms of curvature waves, rather than metric waves. The existence of two transverse polarization states for curvature waves is proven and in the linearized approximation the quadrupole formula is rederived. A perturbative scheme to extend the linearized result to the non-linear regime is outlined.

Keywords

• general relativity
• Weyl tensor
• gravitational waves