Gravitational memory effects and higher derivative actions

Abstract

We show that charges associated with the internal Lorentz symmetries of general relativity, with higher derivative boundary terms included in the action, capture observable gravitational wave effects. In particular, the Gauss-Bonnet charge measures the precession rate of a freely-falling gyroscope, while the Pontryagin charge encodes the relative radial acceleration of freely-falling test masses. This relation highlights the importance of the tetrad formalism and the physical significance of asymptotic internal Lorentz symmetries.

Displacement versus velocity memory effects from a gravitational plane wave

“…Finally, it would be interesting to apply this strategy to analyze the memory effects beyond general relativity. See [84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91] for related investigations.…”