Cataclysmic astrophysical phenomena can produce impulsive gravitational waves that can possibly be detected by the advanced versions of present-day detectors in the future. Gluing of two spacetimes across a null surface produces impulsive gravitational waves (in the phraseology of Penrose [1]) having a Dirac Delta function type pulse profile along the surface. It is known that BMS-like symmetries appear as soldering freedom while we glue two spacetimes along a null surface. In this note, we study the effect of such impulsive gravitational waves on test particles (detectors) or geodesics. We show explicitly some measurable effects that depend on BMS-transformation parameters on timelike and null geodesics. BMS-like symmetry parameters carried by the gravitational wave leave some "memory" on test geodesics upon passing through them.

We study horizon shells and soldering freedom for extreme black holes and how supertranslation-like Bondi-Metzner-Sachs (BMS) symmetries appear as soldering transformations. Further, for a null shell placed infinitesimally close to the horizon of an extreme Reissner-Nordström (RN) black hole, we show superrotation-like symmetries also arise as soldering freedom. Next, considering the interaction of impulsive gravitational waves supported at the horizon shell with test particles, we study how the "memory" (or the imprints) of BMS-like symmetries gets encoded in the geodesics (test particles) crossing the shell. Our study shows, timelike test particles get displaced from their initial plane when they cross the horizon shell. For a null geodesic congruence crossing the horizon shell, the optical tensors corresponding to the congruence suffer jumps. In both cases, the changes are induced by BMS parameters that constitute the gravity wave and matter degrees of freedom of the shell.

Carbon isotope discrimination (CID) has been suggested as an indirect tool for selection of water use efficiency in wheat. This study evaluates the role of Rubisco activity in regulating carbon isotope discrimination (CID) and discriminate the response of durum (PDW-233) and bread (C-306, HD-2329) wheat genotypes for carbon isotope discrimination and Rubisco activity under induced water stress hydroponically created by using different concentrations of PEG. In C-306, a well known drought tolerant genotype, CID was positively correlated with Rubisco activity. In C-306 CID was positively correlated with both Rubisco activity (r = 0.588* at 5). A positive but not a strong correlation was observed between Rubisco activity and CID (r = 0.418) in durum type PDW-233. Although in HD-2329 the Rubisco activity (r = 0.303) was positively correlated with CID, the correlations were not significant. We show that carbon isotope discrimination technique is a potential tool for selection of lines with high Rubisco activity in the wheat breeding program.

We study the displacement memory effect and its connection with the extended-BMS symmetries near the horizon of black holes. We show there is a permanent shift in the geodesic deviation vector relating two nearby timelike geodesics placed close to the horizon of black holes, upon the passage of gravitational waves. We also relate this memory effect with the asymptotic symmetries near the horizon of asymptotic black hole spacetimes. The shift of the relative position of the detectors is shown to be induced by a combination of BMS generators near the horizon. The displacement memory effect near the horizon possesses similarities to the same obtained in the far region.