WEAVE STATES FOR PLANE GRAVITATIONAL-WAVES

In the nonperturbative approach for quantizing gravity in terms of Ash tekar variables, the weave states, approximating given classical metri cs at large scales, play an important role. In the present paper we co nstruct the weave states for an exact solution of Einstein's equations , representing plane gravitational waves. We also investigate the low- energy limit for the exact and linearized cases and show that in the e xact case no splitting into a background metric plus perturbation occu rs. We discuss the ''small'' and ''large-loop'' weave states and comme nt on their applications.