arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Grigorios Fournodavlos.
We establish the nonlinear stability to the future of tilted two-fluid Bianchi I solutions to the Einstein-Euler equations with positive cosmological constant and linear equations of state $p_{(\mathfrak{a})}=K_{(\mathfrak{a})}ρ_{(\mathfrak{a})}$, $\mathfrak{a}\in\{1,2\}$, where $\frac{1}{3}<K_{(\mathfrak{a})}<\frac{5}{7}$.
We prove the nonlinear stability of the cosmological region of Kerr de Sitter spacetimes. More precisely, we show that solutions to the Einstein vacuum equations with positive cosmological constant arising from data on a cylinder that is uniformly close to the Kerr de Sitter geometry (with possibly different mass and angular momentum parameters at either end) are future geodesically complete and display asymptotically de Sitter-like degrees of freedom. The proof uses an ADM formulation of the Einstein equations in parabolic gauge. Together with a well-known theorem of Hintz-Vasy [Acta Math. 220 (2018)], our result yields a global stability result for Kerr de Sitter from Cauchy data on a spacelike hypersurface bridging two black hole exteriors.
Arakelian's classical approximation theorem \cite{Ar} gives necessary and sufficient conditions such that functions can be uniformly approximated in (unbounded) closed sets $F\subset \mathbb{C}$ by entire functions. The conditions are purely topological and concern the connectedness of the complement of $F$. We give a new characterization of Arakelian sets in terms of logarithmic branches of functions $f\in A(F)$, which are continuous in $F$ and holomorphic in its interior $F^\circ$. Our proof is based on a contradiction argument and the counterexample function that we use is furnished by the Weierstrass factorization theorem.
We construct local, in spacetime, singular solutions to the Einstein vacuum equations that exhibit Kasner-like behavior in their past boundary. Our result can be viewed as a localization (in space) of the construction in \cite{FL}. We also prove a refined uniqueness statement and give a simple argument that generates general asymptotic data for Kasner-like singularities, enjoying all expected degrees of freedom, albeit only locally in space. The key difference of the present work with \cite{FL} is our use of a first order symmetric hyperbolic formulation of the Einstein vacuum equations, relative to the connection coefficients of a parallelly propagated orthonormal frame which is adapted to the Gaussian time foliation. This makes it easier to localize the construction, since elliptic estimates are no longer required to complete the energy argument.
We study the future stability of cosmological fluids, in spacetimes with an accelerated expansion, which exhibit extreme tilt behavior, ie. their fluid velocity becoming asymptotically null at timelike infinity. It has been predicted in the article \cite{LEUW} that the latter behavior is dominant for sound speeds beyond radiation $c_s=1/\sqrt{3}$, hence, bifurcating off of the stable orthogonal fluid behavior modeled by the classical FLRW family of solutions, for $c_s^2\in[0,\frac{1}{3}]$. First, we construct homogeneous solutions to the Einstein-Euler system with the latter behavior, in $\mathbb{S}^3$ spatial topology, for sound speeds $c_s^2\in(\frac{1}{3},1)$. Then, we study their future dynamics and prove a global stability result in the restricted range $c_s^2\in(\frac{1}{3},\frac{3}{7})$. In particular, we show that extreme tilt behavior persists to sufficiently small perturbations of the homogeneous backgrounds, without any symmetry assumptions or analyticity. Our method is based on a bootstrap argument, in weighted Sobolev spaces, capturing the exponential decay of suitable renormalized variables. Extreme tilt behavior is associated with a degeneracy in the top order energy estimates that we derive, which allows us to complete our bootstrap argument only in the aforementioned restricted range of sound speeds. Interestingly, this is a degeneracy that does not appear in the study of formal series expansions. Moreover, for the Euler equations on a fixed FLRW background, our estimates can be improved to treat the entire beyond radiation interval $c_s^2\in(\frac{1}{3},1)$, a result already obtained in \cite{MO}. The latter indicates that the former issue is related to the general inhomogeneous geometry of the perturbed metric in the coupled to Einstein case.
For $(t,x) \in (0,\infty)\times\mathbb{T}^D$, the generalized Kasner solutions are a family of explicit solutions to various Einstein-matter systems that start out smooth but then develop a Big Bang singularity as $t \downarrow 0$, i.e., curvature blowup along a spacelike hypersurface. The family is parameterized by the Kasner exponents $\widetilde{q}_1,\cdots,\widetilde{q}_D \in \mathbb{R}$, which satisfy two algebraic constraints. There are heuristics in the mathematical physics literature, going back more than 50 years, suggesting that the Big Bang formation should be stable under perturbations of the Kasner initial data, given say at $\lbrace t = 1 \rbrace$, as long as the exponents are "sub-critical" in the following sense: $\mathop{\max_{I,J,B=1,\cdots,D}}_{I < J} \{\widetilde{q}_I+\widetilde{q}_J-\widetilde{q}_B\}<1$. Previous works have shown the stability of the singularity under stronger assumptions: 1) the Einstein-scalar field system with $D = 3$ and $\widetilde{q}_1 \approx \widetilde{q}_2 \approx \widetilde{q}_3 \approx 1/3$ or 2) the Einstein-vacuum equations for $D \geq 39$ with $\max_{I=1,\cdots,D} |\widetilde{q}_I| < 1/6$. We prove that the Kasner singularity is dynamically stable for \emph{all} sub-critical Kasner exponents, thereby justifying the heuristics in the full regime where stable monotonic-type curvature blowup is expected. We treat the $1+D$-dimensional Einstein-scalar field system for $D \geq3$ and the $1+D$ dimensional Einstein-vacuum equations for $D \geq 10$. Moreover, for the Einstein-vacuum equations in $1+3$ dimensions, where instabilities are in general expected, we prove that all singular Kasner solutions have stable Big Bangs under polarized $U(1)$-symmetric perturbations of their initial data. Our results hold for open sets of initial data in Sobolev spaces without symmetry, apart from our work on polarized $U(1)$-symmetric solutions.
We prove existence, uniqueness and regularity of solutions to the Einstein vacuum equations taking the form $${^{(4)}g} = -dt^2 + \sum_{i,j = 1}^3 a_{ij}t^{2p_{\max\{i,j\}}}\, \mathrm{d} x^i\, \mathrm{d} x^j$$ on $(0,T]_t \times \mathbb T^3_x$, where $a_{ij}(t,x)$ and $p_i(x)$ are regular functions without symmetry or analyticity assumptions. These metrics are singular and asymptotically Kasner-like as $t\to 0^+$. These solutions are expected to be highly non-generic, and our construction can be viewed as solving a singular initial value problem with Fuchsian-type analysis where the data are posed on the "singular hypersurface" $\{ t = 0\}$. This is the first such result without imposing symmetry or analyticity. To carry out the analysis, we study the problem in a synchronized coordinate system. In particular, we introduce a novel way to perform (weighted) energy estimates in such a coordinate system based on estimating the second fundamental forms of the constant-$t$ hypersurfaces.
We consider solutions to the Einstein-massless-scalar field system with a positive cosmological constant, arising from sufficiently regular, near-FLRW, initial data. We establish global existence in the future direction and derive their precise asymptotic behavior towards infinity. As a corollary, we infer that, unlike the FLRW background, the perturbed solutions do not describe a regular irrotational stiff fluid with linear equation of state $p=ρ$, for general asymptotic data at infinity. The reason for the breakdown of this interpretation is that the gradient of the scalar field stops being timelike at large times, eventually becoming null and then spacelike near infinity. Our results hold for open sets of initial data in Sobolev spaces without symmetries.
We give a short proof of local well-posedness for the initial boundary value problem in general relativity with sole boundary condition the requirement that the boundary is umbilic. This includes as a special case the totally geodesic boundary condition that we had previously addressed in [8]. The proof is based on wave coordinates and the key observation that the momentum constraint is always valid for umbilic boundaries. This allows for a greater freedom in the choice of boundary conditions, since imposing the umbilic condition also provides Neumann boundary conditions for three of the four wave coordinates conditions. Moreover, the umbilic condition, being geometric, implies that geometric uniqueness in the sense of Friedrich holds in this specific case.
We prove the well-posedness of the initial boundary value problem for the Einstein equations with sole boundary condition the requirement that the timelike boundary is totally geodesic. This provides the first well-posedness result for this specific geometric boundary condition and the first setting for which geometric uniqueness in the original sense of Friedrich holds for the initial boundary value problem. Our proof relies on the ADM system for the Einstein vacuum equations, formulated with respect to a parallelly propagated orthonormal frame along timelike geodesics. As an independent result, we first establish the well-posedness in this gauge of the Cauchy problem for the Einstein equations, including the propagation of constraints. More precisely, we show that by appropriately modifying the evolution equations, using the constraint equations, we can derive a first order symmetric hyperbolic system for the connection coefficients of the orthonormal frame. The propagation of the constraints then relies on the derivation of a hyperbolic system involving the connection, suitably modified Riemann and Ricci curvature tensors and the torsion of the connection. In particular, the connection is shown to agree with the Levi-Civita connection at the same time as the validity of the constraints. In the case of the initial boundary value problem with totally geodesic boundary, we then verify that the vanishing of the second fundamental form of the boundary leads to homogeneous boundary conditions for our modified ADM system, as well as for the hyperbolic system used in the propagation of the constraints. An additional analytical difficulty arises from a loss of control on the normal derivatives to the boundary of the solution. To resolve this issue, we work with an anisotropic scale of Sobolev spaces and exploit the specific structure of the equations.
We show a stability result for the Schwarzschild singularity (inside the black hole region) for the Einstein vacuum equations. The result is proven in the class of polarized axial symmetry, under perturbations of the Schwarzschild data induced on a hypersurface $\{r=\e\}$, $\e<<2M$. Our result is only partly a stability result, in that we show that while a (space-like) singularity persists under perturbations as above, the behaviour of the metric approaching the singularity is much more involved than for the Schwarzschild solution. Indeed, we find that the solution displays asymptocially-velocity-term-dominated dynamics and approaches a different Kasner solution at each point of the singularity. These Kasner-type asymptotics are very far from isotropic, since (as in Schwarzschild) there are two contracting directions and one expanding one. Our proof relies on energy methods and on a new approach to the EVE in axial symmetry, which we believe has wider applicability: In this symmetry class and under a suitable geodesic gauge, the EVE can be studied as a free wave coupled to (nonlinear) ODEs, which couple the geometry of the projected, 2+1 space-time to the free wave. The fact that the nonlinear part of the Einstein equations is described by ODEs lies at the heart of how one can overcome a certain linear instability exhibited by the singularity.
We consider the initial boundary value problem for the Einstein vacuum equations in the maximal gauge, or more generally, in a gauge where the mean curvature of a timelike foliation is fixed near the boundary. We prove the existence of solutions such that the normal to the boundary is tangent to the time slices, the lapse of the induced time coordinate on the boundary is fixed and the main geometric boundary conditions are given by the 1-parameter family of Riemannian conformal metrics on each two-dimensional section. As in the local existence theory of Christodoulou-Klainerman for the Einstein vacuum equations in the maximal gauge, we use as a reduced system the wave equations satisfied by the components of the second fundamental form of the the time foliation. The main difficulty lies in completing the above set of boundary conditions such that the reduced system is well-posed, but still allows for the recovery of the Einstein equations. We solve this problem by imposing the momentum constraint equations on the boundary, suitably modified by quantities vanishing in the maximal gauge setting. To derive energy estimates for the reduced system at time t, we show that all the terms in the flux integrals on the boundary can be either directly controlled by the boundary conditions or they lead to an integral on the two-dimensional section at time t of the boundary. Exploiting again the maximal gauge condition on the boundary, this contribution to the flux integrals can then be absorbed by a careful trace inequality in the interior energy.
We study the behaviour of smooth solutions to the wave equation, $\square_gψ=0$, in the interior of a fixed Schwarzschild black hole. In particular, we obtain a full asymptotic expansion for all solutions towards $r=0$ and show that it is characterised by its first two leading terms, the principal logarithmic term and a bounded second order term. Moreover, we characterise an open set of initial data for which the corresponding solutions blow up logarithmically on the entirety of the singular hypersurface $\{r=0\}$. Our method is based on deriving weighted energy estimates in physical space and requires no symmetries of solutions. However, a key ingredient in our argument uses a precise analysis of the spherically symmetric part of the solution and a monotonicity property of spherically symmetric solutions in the interior.
We study spherically symmetric solutions to the Einstein-Euler equations which model an idealized relativistic neutron star surrounded by vacuum. These are barotropic fluids with a free boundary, governed by an equation of state which sets the speed of sound equal to the speed of light. We demonstrate the existence of a 1-parameter family of static solutions, or ''hard stars,'' and describe their stability properties: First, we show that small stars are a local minimum of the mass energy functional under variations which preserve the total number of particles. In particular, we prove that the second variation of the mass energy functional controls the ''mass aspect function.'' Second, we derive the linearisation of the Euler-Einstein system around small stars in ''comoving coordinates,'' and prove a uniform boundedness statement for an energy, which is exactly at the level of the variational argument. Finally, we exhibit the existence of time periodic solutions to the linearised system, which shows that energy boundedness is optimal for this problem.
We consider the wave equation, $\square_gψ=0$, in fixed flat Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker and Kasner spacetimes with topology $\mathbb{R}_+\times\mathbb{T}^3$. We obtain generic blow up results for solutions to the wave equation towards the Big Bang singularity in both backgrounds. In particular, we characterize open sets of initial data prescribed at a spacelike hypersurface close to the singularity, which give rise to solutions that blow up in an open set of the Big Bang hypersurface $\{t=0\}$. The initial data sets are characterized by the condition that the Neumann data should dominate, in an appropriate $L^2$-sense, up to two spatial derivatives of the Dirichlet data. For these initial configurations, the $L^2(\mathbb{T}^3)$ norms of the solutions blow up towards the Big Bang hypersurfaces of FLRW and Kasner with inverse polynomial and logarithmic rates respectively. Our method is based on deriving suitably weighted energy estimates in physical space. No symmetries of solutions are assumed.
We study the backwards-in-time stability of the Schwarzschild singularity from a dynamical PDE point of view. More precisely, considering a spacelike hypersurface $Σ_0$ in the interior of the black hole region, tangent to the singular hypersurface $\{r=0\}$ at a single sphere, we study the problem of perturbing the Schwarzschild data on $Σ_0$ and solving the Einstein vacuum equations backwards in time. We obtain a local well-posedness result for small perturbations lying in certain weighted Sobolev spaces. No symmetry assumptions are imposed. The perturbed spacetimes all have a singularity at a "collapsed" sphere on $Σ_0$, where the leading asymptotics of the curvature and the metric match those of their Schwarzschild counterparts to a suitably high order. As in the Schwarzschild backward evolution, the pinched initial hypersurface $Σ_0$ `opens up' instantly, becoming a smooth spacelike (cylindrical) hypersurface. This result thus yields classes of examples of non-symmetric vacuum spacetimes, evolving forward-in-time from smooth initial data, which form a Schwarzschild type singularity at a collapsed sphere. We rely on a precise asymptotic analysis of the Schwarzschild geometry near the singularity which turns out to be at the threshold that our energy methods can handle.
We introduce certain spherically symmetric singular Ricci solitons and study their stability under the Ricci flow from a dynamical PDE point of view. The solitons in question exist for all dimensions $n+1\ge 3$, and all have a point singularity where the curvature blows up; their evolution under the Ricci flow is in sharp contrast to the evolution of their smooth counterparts. In particular, the family of diffeomorphisms associated with the Ricci flow "pushes away" from the singularity causing the evolving soliton to open up immediately becoming an incomplete (but non-singular) metric. In the second part of this paper we study the local-in time stability of this dynamical evolution, under spherically symmetric perturbations of the initial soliton metric. We prove a local well-posedness result for the Ricci flow near the singular initial data, which in particular implies that the "opening up" of the singularity persists for the perturbations also.