Null Hypersurfaces in de Sitter and anti-de Sitter Cosmologies

Abstract

The study of gravitational waves in the presence of a cosmological constant has led to interesting forms of the de Sitter and anti-de Sitter line elements based on families of null hypersurfaces. The forms are interesting because they focus attention on the geometry of null hypersurfaces in space-times of constant curvature. Two examples are worked out in some detail. The first originated in the study of collisions of impulsive gravitational waves in which the post-collision space-time is a solution of Einstein's field equations with a cosmological constant, and the second originated in the generalisation of plane fronted gravitational waves with parallel rays to include a cosmological constant.