GRAVITATIONAL SCATTERING ON A GLOBAL MONOPOLE

The scattering amplitude and the total scattering cross section of massless particles propagating in the gravitational field of a global monopole are derived. We find that the physical signature of such defects is a ringlike angular region where the scattering scattering amplitude is very large. The size of this ringlike region is determined by the ratio of the global monopole mass to the Planck mass and its appearance stems from the fact that the metric of the global monopole is not asymptotically flat but rather displays the characteristic spherical angle defect. The situation is therefore very much reminiscent of scattering in the gravitational field of the cosmic string.