Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-general-relativity-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021/2/a/iii/solution

No, for a uniform or otherwise axisymmetric disc in steady rotation. Although individual material elements accelerate, the mass density and mass current at every spatial point remain constant, and the mass quadrupole moment is time independent. There is no gravitational radiation. Axisymmetry of the material distribution is necessary for this conclusion: the source does not explicitly specify the disc's density. A counterexample to an unconditional answer is a disc with two equal dense spots at opposite radii; their rotating mass quadrupole moment produces gravitational waves at twice the rotation angular frequency.

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