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).