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6 votes
1 answer
334 views

Tensor component calculation

First of all, this question may be more suited for the Math stack exchange site. If anyone finds this question irrelevant here, please transfer to the relevant site. Recall that in terms of Weyl and ...
3 votes
0 answers
126 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 ...
1 vote
0 answers
59 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
333 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 ...
36 votes
7 answers
5k views

Is there a mathematical book on general relativity that uses exclusively a coordinate free language even in practical computations?

I would also appreciate if it was as far from the physicists formalism as possible, no abstract indices ,etc. Also I don't consider using a basis or tetrads as coordinate free. The idea is to use ...
6 votes
0 answers
129 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 $\...
9 votes
2 answers
568 views

Some Mathematical Questions on Gravitational Waves and Numerical Relativity

Due to the recent spate of detections of gravitational waves by LIGO, my amateurish interest in the mathematics of general relativity has been revived. The wave-forms of the detected gravitational ...
6 votes
1 answer
580 views

A step in the proof on the uniqueness of mass

I am reading the survey paper "The Yamebe Problem" by Lee and Parker. In section 9, Theorem 9.6 in P.78, it was proved that the mass is well defined in the sense that $m(g)$ depends only on the metric ...
13 votes
4 answers
3k views

General Relativity and Differential Geometry intuitions of Second Bianchi Identity

In General Relativity, one uses the Riemann Tensor in its coordinate form $R_{abcd}$, and proves the Second Bianchi Identity- $R_{abcd;e} + R_{abde;c} + R_{abec;d} = 0$ It is said that ...
4 votes
2 answers
528 views

Obtaining Killing fields from the tetrad

I'm reading the following article by Newman http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jmp/4/7/10.1063/1.1704018 about the generalization of the Schwarzschild metric. My question is the following: ...
2 votes
0 answers
255 views

The Cauchy Problem in General Relativity: Existence of a Hausdorff Development

This is related to a problem that I posed about a year ago. I was given several references by a number of experts who were kind enough to entertain my rather arcane question. Those references were ...