Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!hao!seismo!brl-tgr!gwyn
From: gwyn@brl-tgr.ARPA (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: Big bang a big bust?
Message-ID: <6404@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 6-Dec-84 15:16:04 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.6404
Posted: Thu Dec  6 15:16:04 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Dec-84 03:27:25 EST
References: <131@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab
Lines: 12

> Uh, JC, has anyone Proven that gravitational waves/field travel at the
> speed of light?

The gravitational field does not "travel" at all.

Disturbances in the field are another matter.  The linearized gravity
"waves" can be decomposed into three modes (T-T, T-L, and L-L).  Two of
these (I forget which) can be shown to move at the speed of light
(assuming the General Theory of Relativity, of course).  The story on
the third is a bit confusing, partly due to the strong relation between
the metric tensor and the contracted curvature tensor (in the extended
theory).