On a class of rotating gravitational waves

doi: 10.1088/0264-9381/17/3/302A class of solutions of the gravitational field equations describing vacuum spacetimes outside rotating cylindrical sources is presented. The spacetime metric for this class is given by equation (35); to render this metric explicit, one must solve the nonlinear differential equation (31). A subclass of these solutions could correspond to the exterior gravitational fields of rotating cylindrical systems that emit gravitational radiation. This class has a special solution - corresponding to the exact solution (32) of equation (31) - in common with the Robinson-Trautman gravitational wave spacetimes, namely, the Siklos solution. The properties of rotating gravitational waves are briefly investigated. In particular, we discuss the energy density of these waves using the gravitational stress-energy tensor.This work has been supported by CONACYT, Mexico, grant no 3567-E and DGAPA-UNAM, grant no 121298