Details

For spin weight , the spin-weighted spherical harmonics become identical to the spherical harmonics. The case of spin weight is important for describing gravitational waves. In this Demonstration you can choose different values of the spin weight to see the angular distribution in space for different and modes.

1) Introductory level reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin-weighted_spherical _harmonics

2) Intermediate level reference:

J. J. G. Scanio, "Spin-Weighted Spherical Harmonics and Electromagnetic Multipole Expansions," Am. J. Phys., 45(2), 1977 pp. 173–178.

3) Advanced level reference:

J. N. Goldberg, A. J. Macfarlane, E. T. Newman, F. Rohrlich, and E. C. G. Sudarshan, "Spin- Spherical Harmonics and ," J. Math. Phys., 8(11), 1967 pp. 2155–2161.