Lukash Plane Waves, Revisited

The Lukash metric is a homogeneous gravitational wave which at late times approximates the behaviour of a generic class of spatially homogenous cosmological models with monotonically decreasing energy density. The transcription from Brinkmann to Baldwin-Jeffery-Rosen (BJR) to Bianchi coordinates is presented and the relation to a Sturm-Liouville equation is explained. The 6-parameter isometry group is derived. In the Bianchi VII range of parameters we have two BJR transciptions. However using either of them induces a mere relabeling of the geodesics and isometrics. Following pioneering work of Siklos, we provide a self-contained account of the geometry and global structure of the spacetime. The latter contains a Killing horizon to the future of which the spacetime resembles an anisotropic version of the Milne cosmology and to the past of which it resemble the Rindler wedge.