Questions tagged [general-relativity]
For questions about mathematical problems arising from general relativity, the branch of physics which provides and studies the currently accepted geometric description of gravity.
181
questions
0
votes
0
answers
36
views
Prove the orthogonality of vector spherical harmonics
We define
$S_a^{lm} = \Big( - \frac{1}{\sin \theta} Y^{lm}_{,\varphi}, \sin \theta\ Y^{lm}_{,\theta} \Big)$
$Y_a^{lm} = \Big( Y^{lm}_{,\theta}, Y^{lm}_{,\varphi} \Big)$
to be the axial vector ...
0
votes
1
answer
45
views
Handling degenerate planes in pseudo-Riemannian geometry: impact on sectional curvature and comparison theorems
I've been studying Riemannian and pseudo-Riemannian manifolds and came across an intriguing point regarding the definition of sectional curvature in both geometries.
In pseudo-Riemannian geometry, for ...
-4
votes
0
answers
417
views
N dimensional, not-locally Euclidean, non-Hausdorff topological space
Take a topological space $(M, \tau) $ where $\tau$ is the collection of open sets of $M$.
Suppose:
the Lebesgue covering dimension of this space is $N \geq 1$
Non-Hausdorff
Not locally Euclidean
The ...
3
votes
0
answers
92
views
On the linearized evolution equations in general relativity
The following puzzles me already for quite some time: In mathematical relativity, especially in the discussion of the Cauchy problem, one usually works in the so-called ADM-Formalism, in which one ...
3
votes
1
answer
565
views
What is the Lebesgue covering dimension of this topological space?
Take the 4 dimensional time-oriented spacetime $(M,g)$ such that it's not strongly causal.
Take the induced topology defined by the Lorentzian metric called Alexandrov topology.
This topology matches ...
13
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Is the Gödel universe Wick rotatable?
Take Wick rotatability being as the way defined in the following article by Helleland and Hervik:
Christer Helleland, Sigbjørn Hervik, Wick rotations and real GIT, Journal of Geometry and Physics 123 ...
1
vote
0
answers
95
views
How causal is a strongly causal purely electric spacetime?
Take a generic Lorentzian spacetime $(M, g)$ where $M$ is a time-oriented 4d manifold and $g$ is the Lorentzian metric that is strongly causal and purely electric.
According to this answer:
Is every ...
2
votes
0
answers
344
views
Is a Wick rotatable spacetime necessarily strongly causal?
There are a few viable ways to formulate Wick rotatability that preserve distinct features.
One is mentioned in the post:
Obtain Lorentzian manifolds from Riemannian ones by Wick rotation
There's also ...
3
votes
1
answer
222
views
Is every strongly causal spacetime purely electric?
Take a time 4-dimensional orinted Lorentzian manifold $(M,g)$.
A spacetime is called Strongly Causal at point $p$ if and only if for every neighbourhood $U$ of the point $p$ there exists a ...
3
votes
1
answer
307
views
reference for reading Schoen Yau positive mass theorem proof II
I am trying to read the paper by Schoen and Yau, Proof of the Positive Mass Theorem II. The notation is very different from what I am familiar with (basically Robert Wald's book on general relativity)....
0
votes
1
answer
170
views
Distinguishable under manifold topology but indistinguishable under the Alexandrov topology
Take the time-oriented Lorentzian spacetime $(M, g)$ that is not strongly causal.
In such case it is shown that the Alexandrov topology and the Manifolds topology deviate such that the manifold ...
3
votes
0
answers
67
views
Is it always possible to find a conjugate optical function?
Optical functions (functions with null gradients) and double null foliations (foliations of a spacetime by two related optical functions) play a large roll in modern mathematical relativity research. ...
2
votes
0
answers
348
views
What is the nerve of this category?
If $\mathcal{C}$ is a thin category, we call $U \subseteq \mathrm{Ob}(\mathcal{C})$ open if for every object $X \in U$ and any morphism $X \to Y$, we also have $Y \in U$. This declares an Alexandrov ...
1
vote
1
answer
258
views
Temporal evolution of a globally hyperbolic spacetime
Any globally hyperbolic spacetime can be assigned a global function of time as Hawking has demonstrated for stably causal spacetime. (Any globally hyperbolic spacetime is also stably causal).
For ...
3
votes
0
answers
772
views
Is this set a manifold?
Take a general spacetime that is not strongly causal.
Call this spacetime $(M, g) $ where $M$ is a connected time-oriented manifold and $g$ is the Lorentzian metric that satisfies the Einstein's Field ...
5
votes
2
answers
695
views
What is lost in General Relativity without Hahn-Banach axiom in the ZF+HB set theory?
In the same spirit of this question:
How much of mathematical General Relativity depends on the Axiom of Choice?
I want to go radically further ahead and ask for what remains of mathematical general ...
0
votes
1
answer
484
views
Non-diffeomorphic but homeomorphic (under Lorentzian topology) Lorentzian manifolds
$\newcommand{\lorentzian}{\mathrm{lorentzian}}\newcommand{\lorentzian}{\mathrm{lorentzian}}\newcommand{\diff}{\mathrm{diff}}\newcommand{\manifold}{\mathrm{manifold}}$Take a time-oriented Lorentzian ...
0
votes
0
answers
100
views
Lorentzian geometry. Comparing Honda's main theorem A construction to mine: Mixed type surfaces
This question is based on a wonderful paper by A. Honda (link below) where his main theorem A provides an incredible uniqueness result. Mixed type surfaces and type changing metrics have been ...
40
votes
3
answers
5k
views
How much of mathematical General Relativity depends on the Axiom of Choice?
One of the cornerstones of the mathematical formulation of General Relativity (GR) is the result (due to Choquet-Bruhat and others) that the initial value problem for the Einstein field equations is ...
4
votes
1
answer
332
views
Metric with a constant Chern–Pontryagin scalar
Do there exist 3+1 dimensional spacetimes (i.e. Lorentzian manifolds with signaure (1,3)), for which the Chern–Pontryagin scalar
\begin{equation}
K_2= \epsilon^{\mu\nu\rho\sigma}R^{\alpha}{}_{\beta\mu\...
2
votes
0
answers
90
views
Non-compactness on Penrose singularity
I've been studying singularities in GR, and (obviously), came across PST.
Let us state it as the following:
Let $(M, g)$ be a connected globally hyperbolic
spacetime with a noncompact Cauchy ...
0
votes
1
answer
114
views
Curvature of an affine system
I find an interesting paper that mentioned the Definition of curvature of an affine optimal control system. It reminded me that many textbooks on Riemannian geometry only tell us about metrics, ...
4
votes
0
answers
96
views
Behavior of lapse function at infinity: stability of Minkowski
In the Stability of Minkowski Spacetime, Christodoulou and Klainerman prove a local existence proof for a particular class of quasilinear wave equation for a symmetric, traceless, covariant 2-tensor $...
2
votes
0
answers
127
views
Naked curvature singularity vs Cauchy horizon in stably causal space-time
There is a result
that says (theorem 2.11) that any stably causal space-time $M$ is either a product $\Sigma\times \mathbb{R}$ or the time-like gradient $\nabla f$ of a time function $f:M\rightarrow \...
11
votes
1
answer
345
views
Synthetic differential / conformal geometry of Lorentzian manifolds?
Let $M$ be a sufficiently nice Lorentzian manifold of dimension $\geq 3$. It's known [1] (see also [2]) that the differential and even conformal structure of $M$ is completely encoded in the causal ...
1
vote
0
answers
57
views
Number of divergence free symmetric two tensor in dimension 4 [duplicate]
In a $4$ dimensional (semi)-Riemannian manifold $(M^{4}, g)$, both Einstein tensor $G= \operatorname{Ric}(g)- \frac{R(g)}{2}g$ and stress-energy tensor $T$ symmetric and divergence-free. Is there any ...
3
votes
1
answer
233
views
Definitions fundamental forms and their geometric Intuition
Let $(M^{n+1}, g)$ be a Lorentzian manifold (spacetime) that contains a Riemannian/spacelike hypersurface $(\Sigma ^{n},h).$ Then we can define the second fundamental form of the hypersurface in many ...
6
votes
1
answer
274
views
The Cauchy problem in general relativity, hyperbolic PDEs, and Sobolev spaces on manifolds
(I apologize in advance if this question is ill-posed or not suitable for Math Overflow, I am not yet a research mathematician, just a student.)
Let $(\Sigma,\bar{g})$ be an $n$-dimensional Riemannian ...
0
votes
1
answer
194
views
Numerical reconstruction of Einstein's field equations
A few analytic solutions are known to the Einstein field equations:
$$ R_{\mu\nu} - \frac{1}{2}g_{\mu\nu}R - kT_{\mu\nu} = 0$$
Taking a preexisting analytic solution such as Schwarzchild's solution:
$$...
1
vote
0
answers
84
views
Invariance signature in infinite dimension
Let $V$ be an infinite dimensional vector space and suppose we have a smooth family $\{g_t\}_{t\ge 0}$ of symmetric bi-linear forms such that:
$g_0$ is positive-definite
$g_t$ is non-degenerate for ...
0
votes
1
answer
266
views
Mathematical characterization of gravitational geons as reference request, and their properties as main question
I've edited (ten days ago) a question on Physics Stack Exchange, this Mathematical characterization of gravitational geons, post with identifier 726281 the users of the site were kind adding in the ...
2
votes
1
answer
301
views
Understanding the proof of lemma 1.1 from Fisher, Marsden, and Moncrief's paper
The following lemma is from Fisher, Marsden, and Moncrief's paper: the structure of the space of solutions of Einstein's equations:1
1.1. Lemma.
If Ein( $\left.{ }^{(4)} g\right)=0$, and ${ }^{(4)} h$ ...
5
votes
1
answer
822
views
On imaginary time
I've heard a few times that "the time was imaginary before the Big Bang".
I am guessing it means that at this stage, the space-time was a Riemannian $4$-manifold, but I am not sure this ...
0
votes
1
answer
82
views
How to choose a set of non-orthonormal basis vectors for the absolute space of a stationary and axisymmetric space-time in General Relativity?
In General Relativity, the space-time is described by the metric tensor $g_{\mu\nu}$, where $\mu,\nu=0,1,2,3$ and the interval is written as $$ds^2=g_{\mu\nu}dx^\mu dx^\nu$$.
A 3+1 split allows to ...
3
votes
1
answer
129
views
Convergence of spheres in nonlinear stability of Minkowski space
My question is about Lemma 3.3.1 in Christodoulou and Klainerman's proof of nonlinear stability of Minkowski space. This lemma says the following: Consider a family of metrics $m_u$ on $S^2$ defined ...
7
votes
2
answers
263
views
In which dimensions is a strongly causal Lorentzian manifold determined conformally by its causal structure?
Let $M$ be a strongly causal Lorentzian manifold. If $M$ has dimension 4, a theorem of Hawking, King, and McCarthy (see Thm 5) says that $M$ is determined up to conformal isomorphism by its class of ...
4
votes
1
answer
134
views
Example of a bicontinuous poset which is not jointly bicontinuous?
Recall that a poset $P$ is said to be continuous if, for every $p \in P$, the set $\{q \in P \mid q \ll p \}$ is directed with supremum $p$. Here $q \ll p$ is the "way below" relation (see ...
1
vote
0
answers
70
views
Completeness of infinitely intersecting causal geodesics in strongly causal spacetimes
Let $(M,g)$ be a connected, smooth, strongly causal Lorentzian manifold, and consider an inextendible causal geodesic $\sigma : [0,b) \to M$ (a priori, $b$ may be $\infty$) with the following property:...
2
votes
0
answers
111
views
Two identical objects circling the center of mass periodically in general relativity
In Newton's gravity we can have two identical objects circle the center of mass periodically (assuming the surroundings are vacuum).
Is something like this possible in general relativity? Is there an ...
3
votes
0
answers
249
views
What are quantum extremal surfaces from a mathematical viewpoint?
It is said that they are surfaces which locally maximize area and bulk entanglement entropy. It would be great if I could receive some introductory material on it and some prerequisites to understand ...
2
votes
1
answer
149
views
Hyperboloids in Minkowski geometry
Let $(\mathbb R^{1+2},\eta)$ be Minkowski with the metric $\eta= -dt^2+(dx^1)^2+(dx^2)^2$. Suppose $\Sigma$ is a smooth timelike hypersurface and denote by $h$ the second fundamental form on $\Sigma$. ...
5
votes
1
answer
329
views
Spin connection in the tetradic Palatini-formalism of general relativity
$\DeclareMathOperator\SO{SO}$I am trying to understand the tetradic Palatini-formalism of general relativity from a mathematical point of view. I am graduate student and quite new to mathematical ...
4
votes
1
answer
180
views
Compactly supported transverse traceless tensors
Let $(M, g)$ be a Riemanian manifold (or $\mathbb{R}^n$ if you prefer). A TT-tensor is a symmetric 2-tensor $\sigma_{ab}$ satisfying
$g^{ab} \sigma_{ab} \equiv 0$ ($\sigma$ is trace free),
$\nabla^a ...
3
votes
1
answer
206
views
A question on light cones in Lorentzian manifolds with timelike boundary
Suppose $M= \mathbb R \times M_0$ with a Lorentzian metric $g(t,x)=-dt^2+ g_0(t,x)$ where
$M_0$ is a compact manifold with a smooth boundary and $g_0$ is a family of smooth Riemannian metrics on $M_0$ ...
4
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Reference for mathematical Palatini formalism of general relativity
I know that this is maybe not a research level question, but since the topic is quite special, I thought that the chance to get some reference is higher in this community.
I am looking for a reference ...
0
votes
0
answers
179
views
Morphism of non-commutative algebras
Disclaimer: this question is a "big picture" one that comes from my personal thoughts in physics. If it doesn't fit this site, please tell me.
While having a walk, I thought a bit about what ...
7
votes
3
answers
513
views
Preservation of metric signature in Cauchy problem for the Einstein equations
In Choquet-Bruhat's solution to the Cauchy problem for Einstein's equation, one reduces the Einstein equations to a quasidiagonal quasilinear hyperbolic system on $ M := [0, T] \times \bar M$ where $T ...
1
vote
3
answers
446
views
Usage/Application of Raychaudhuri equation in Riemann geometry or pure maths
While going through this paper by Witten and seeing a discussion about different aspects of Raychaudhari Equation and Einstein Field Equation. I want to ask if Raychaudhari Equation find any ...
6
votes
2
answers
601
views
In what sense exactly are the Einstein metrics distinguished?
EDIT: In general relativity given a manifold $M$ one can consider a functional on (pseudo-) Riemannian metrics $g$ $$\int_M R\,\, dvol_g,$$
where $R$ is the scalar curvature and $vol_g$ is the (pseudo-...
6
votes
0
answers
118
views
Deriving (Gaussian) curvature bounds from bounds on the metric
I am trying to understand a bound in Christodoulou's 2008 paper on black hole formation.
The paper considers a spacelike surface $S$ diffeomorphic to a sphere, with two metrics:
the induced metric $\...