Published for SISSA by Springer Received: November 26, 2018 Accepted: December 12, 2018 Published: December 21, 2018 Memory, Penrose limits and the geometry of JHEP12(2018)133 gravitational shockwaves and gyratons Graham M. Shore Department of Physics, College of Science, Swansea University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, U.K. E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract: The geometric description of gravitational memory for strong gravitational waves is developed, with particular focus on shockwaves and their spinning analogues, gyratons. Memory, which may be of position or velocity-encoded type, characterises the residual separation of neighbouring `detector' geodesics following the passage of a gravi- tational wave burst, and retains information on the nature of the wave source. Here, it is shown how memory is encoded in the Penrose limit of the original gravitational wave spacetime and a new `timelike Penrose limit' is introduced to complement the original plane wave limit appropriate to null congruences. A detailed analysis of memory is presented for timelike and null geodesic congruences in impulsive and extended gravitational shockwaves of Aichelburg-Sexl type, and for gyratons. Potential applications to gravitational wave astronomy and to quantum gravity, especially infra-red structure and ultra-high energy scattering, are briefly mentioned. Keywords: Classical Theories of Gravity, Models of Quantum Gravity ArXiv ePrint: 1811.08827 Open Access, c The Authors. https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP12(2018)133 Article funded by SCOAP3. Contents 1 Introduction2