Asymptotically Plane Wave Spacetimes and their Actions

Abstract

We propose a definition of asymptotically plane wave spacetimes in vacuum gravity in terms of the asymptotic falloff of the metric, and discuss the relation to previously constructed exact solutions. We construct a well-behaved action principle for such spacetimes, using the formalism developed by Mann and Marolf. We show that this action is finite on-shell and that the variational principle is well-defined for solutions of vacuum gravity satisfying our asymptotically plane wave falloff conditions.