Methodological notes on gauge invariance in the treatment of waves and oscillations in plasmas via the Einstein-Vlasov-Maxwell system: Fundamental equations.

The theory of gauge transformations in linearized gravitation is investigated. After a brief discussion of the fundamentals of the kinetic theory in curved spacetime, the Einstein-Vlasov-Maxwell (EVM) system of equations in terms of gauge-invariant quantities is established without neglecting the equations of motion associated with the dynamics of the nonradiative components of the metric tensor. The established theory is applied to a noncollisional electron-positron plasma, leading to a dispersion relation for gravitational waves in this model system. The problem of Landau damping is addressed and some attention is given to the issue of the energy exchanges between the plasma and the gravitational wave. In a future paper, a more complete set of approximate dispersion relations for waves and oscillations in plasmas will be presented, including the dynamics of nonradiative components of the metric tensor, with special attention to the problems of the Landau damping and of the energy exchanges between matter, the electromagnetic field and the gravitational field.