Gravitational Plane Waves in a Non-Riemannian Description of Brans-Dicke Gravity

Abstract: The variational field equations of Brans-Dicke scalar-tensor theory of gravitation are given in a non-Riemannian setting in the language of exterior differential forms over 4-dimensional spacetime. The class of pp-wave metrics together with the Brans-Dicke scalar field are used to derive the geodesic and autoparallel equations of motion for non-spinning test masses in Brinkmann and Rosen coordinates. The effects of the gradient of the scalar field on the auto-parallel equations of motion and Jacobi deviation equation are discussed.