Exact Gravitational Shockwaves and Planckian Scattering on Branes

Abstract

We obtain a solution describing a gravitational shockwave propagating along a Randall-Sundrum brane. The interest of such a solution is twofold: on the one hand, it is the first exact solution for a localized source on a Randall-Sundrum three-brane. On the other hand, one can use it to study forward scattering at Planckian energies, including the effects of the continuum of Kaluza-Klein modes. We map out the different regimes for the scattering obtained by varying the center-of-mass energy and the impact parameter. We also discuss exact shockwaves in ADD scenarios with compact extra dimensions.

19 pages, 3 figures. v2: references added, minor improvements and small errors corrected