$pp$-wave initial data

Abstract

An initial data characterization for vacuum $pp$-wave spacetimes in dimension four is constructed. This is a vacuum initial data set plus some extra conditions guaranteeing that the data development is a subset of a vacuum $pp$-wave. Some of the extra conditions only depend on the same quantities used to construct the vacuum initial data, namely the first and the second fundamental forms while others are related to a conformal Killing initial data characterization (CKID).