On the Geometry of $\varphi$-Static Perfect Fluid Space-Times

Abstract

In this paper we study the geometry of $\varphi$-static perfect fluid space-times ($\varphi$-SPFST, for short). In the context of Einstein's General Relativity, they arise from a space-time whose matter content is described by a perfect fluid in addition to a nonlinear field expressed by a smooth map $\varphi$ with values in a Riemannian manifold. Considering the Lorentzian manifold $\hat{M}$ in the form of a static warped product, we derive the fundamental equations via reduction of Einstein's Field Equations to the factors of the product. To set the stage for our main results, we discuss the validity of the classical Energy Conditions in the present setting and we introduce the formalism of $\varphi$-curvatures, which is a fundamental tool to merge the geometry of the manifold with that of the smooth map $\varphi$. We then present several mathematical settings in which similar structures arise. After computing two integrability conditions, we apply them to prove a number of rigidity results, both for manifolds with or without boundary. In each of the aforementioned results, the main assumption is given by the vanishing of some $\varphi$-curvature tensors and the conclusion is a local splitting of the metric into a warped product. Inspired by the classical Cosmic No Hair Conjecture of Boucher, Gibbons and Horowitz, we find sharp sufficient conditions on a compact $\varphi$-SPFST with boundary to be isometric to the standard hemisphere. We then describe the geometry of relatively compact domains in $M$ subject to an upper bound on the mean curvature of their boundaries. Finally, we study non-existence results for $\varphi$-SPFSTs, both via the existence of zeroes of the solutions of an appropriate ODE and with the aid of a suitable integral formula generalising in a precise sense the well-known Kazdan-Warner obstruction.