arXiv subjects

Mu-Tao Wang

Publications and source records attributed to Mu-Tao Wang.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Total mass and limits of quasi-local mass at future null infinity

An idealized observer of an astronomical event is situated at future null infinity, where light rays emitted from the source approach. Mathematically, null infinity corresponds to the portion of the spacetime boundary defined by equivalence classes of null geodesics. But what can we observe at future null infinity? In the note, we start by reviewing the description of null infinity in terms of the Bondi-Sachs coordinate system. In particular, we reformulate and extend the invariance of Bondi mass and the mass loss formula in terms of a modified mass aspect 2-form. At the end, we discuss new results about the limit of quasilocal mass of unit spheres at null infinity in a Bondi-Sachs coordinate system. This is based on joint work with Po-Ning Chen, Jordan Keller, Ye-Kai Wang, and Shing-Tung Yau.

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arXiv2019

Quasi-local mass at null infinity in Bondi-Sachs coordinates

There are two important statements regarding the Trautman-Bondi mass at null infinity: one is the positivity, and the other is the Bondi mass loss formula, which are both global in nature. In this note, we compute the limit of the Wang-Yau quasi-local mass on unit spheres at null infinity of an asymptotically flat spacetime in the Bondi-Sachs coordinates. The quasi-local mass leads to a local description of the radiation that is purely gravitational at null infinity. In particular, the quasi-local mass is evaluated in terms of the news function of the Bondi-Sachs coordinates.

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arXiv2019

Quasi-local mass on unit spheres at spatial infinity

In this note, we compute the limit of the Wang-Yau quasi-local mass on unit spheres at spatial infinity of an asymptotically flat initial data set. Similar to the small sphere limit of the Wang-Yau quasi-local mass, we prove that the leading order term of the quasi-local mass recovers the stress-energy tensor. For a vacuum spacetime, the quasi-local mass decays faster and the leading order term is related to the Bel-Robinson tensor. Several new techniques of evaluating quasilocal mass are developed in this note.

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arXiv2019

Quasi-local mass at axially symmetric null infinity

We give a brief review of the definition of the Wang-Yau quasilocal mass and discuss the evaluation of which on surfaces of unit size at null infinity of an axi-symmetric spacetime in Bondi-van der Burg-Metzner coordinates.

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arXiv2018

Linear Stability of Schwarzschild Spacetime: Decay of Metric Coefficients

In this paper, we study the theory of linearized gravity and prove the linear stability of Schwarzschild black holes as solutions of the vacuum Einstein equations. In particular, we prove that solutions to the linearized vacuum Einstein equations centered at a Schwarzschild metric, with suitably regular initial data, remain uniformly bounded and decay to a linearized Kerr metric on the exterior region. We employ Hodge decomposition to split the solution into closed and co-closed portions, respectively identified with even-parity and odd-parity solutions in the physics literature. For the co-closed portion, we extend previous results by the first two authors, deriving Regge-Wheeler type equations for two gauge-invariant master quantities without the earlier paper's need of axisymmetry. For the closed portion, we build upon earlier work of Zerilli and Moncrief, wherein the authors derive an equation for a gauge-invariant master quantity in a spherical harmonic decomposition. We work with gauge-invariant quantities at the level of perturbed connection coefficients, with the initial value problem formulated on Cauchy data sets. With the choice of an appropriate gauge in each of the two portions, decay estimates on these decoupled quantities are used to establish decay of the metric coefficients of the solution, completing the proof of linear stability. Our result differs from that of Dafermos-Holzegel-Rodnianski, both in our choice of gauge and in our identification and utilization of lower-level gauge-invariant master quantities.

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arXiv2018

A strong stability condition on minimal submanifolds and its implications

We identify a strong stability condition on minimal submanifolds that implies uniqueness and dynamical stability properties. In particular, we prove a uniqueness theorem and a C^1 dynamical stability theorem of the mean curvature flow for minimal submanifolds that satisfy this condition. The latter theorem states that the mean curvature flow of any other submanifold in a C^1 neighborhood of such a minimal submanifold exists for all time, and converges exponentially to the minimal one. This extends our previous uniqueness and stability theorem [arXiv:1605.03645] which applies only to calibrated submanifolds of special holonomy ambient manifolds.

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arXiv2018

Linear Stability of Higher Dimensional Schwarzschild Spacetimes: Decay of Master Quantities

In this paper, we study solutions to the linearized vacuum Einstein equations centered at higher-dimensional Schwarzschild met- rics. We employ Hodge decomposition to split solutions into scalar, co-vector, and two-tensor pieces; the first two portions respectively cor- respond to the closed and co-closed, or polar and axial, solutions in the case of four spacetime dimensions, while the two-tensor portion is a new feature in the higher-dimensional setting. Rephrasing earlier work of Kodama-Ishibashi-Seto in the language of our Hodge decomposition, we produce decoupled gauge-invariant master quantities satisfying Regge- Wheeler type wave equations in each of the three portions. The scalar and co-vector quantities respectively generalize the Moncrief-Zerilli and Regge-Wheeler quantities found in the setting of four spacetime dimen- sions; beyond these quantities, we further discover a higher-dimensional analog of the Cunningham-Moncrief-Price quantity in the co-vector por- tion. In the analysis of the master quantities, we strengthen the mode stability result of Kodama-Ishibashi to a uniform boundedness estimate in all dimensions; further, we prove decay estimates in the case of six or fewer spacetime dimensions. Finally, we provide a rigorous argument that linearized solutions of low angular frequency are decomposable as a sum of pure gauge solution and linearized Myers-Perry solution, the lat- ter solutions generalizing the linearized Kerr solutions in four spacetime dimensions.

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arXiv2018

A volume preserving flow and the isoperimetric problem in warped product spaces

In this article, we continue the work in \cite{GL} and study a normalized hypersurface flow in the more general ambient setting of warped product spaces. This flow preserves the volume of the bounded domain enclosed by a graphical hypersurface, and monotonically decreases the hypersurface area. As an application, the isoperimetric problem in warped product spaces is solved for such domains.

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arXiv2018

Global uniqueness of the minimal sphere in the Atiyah-Hitchin manifold

In this note, we study submanifold geometry of the Atiyah-Hitchin manifold, the double cover of the $2$-monopole moduli space. When the manifold is naturally identified as the total space of a line bundle over $S^2$, the zero section is a distinguished minimal $2$-sphere of considerable interest. In particular, there has been a conjecture by Micallef and Wolfson [Math. Ann. 295 (1993), Remark on p.262] about the uniqueness of this minimal $2$-sphere among all closed minimal $2$-surfaces. We show that this minimal $2$-sphere satisfies the "strong stability condition" proposed in our earlier work [arXiv:1710.00433], and confirm the global uniqueness as a corollary.

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arXiv2018

The Minkowski formula and the quasi-local mass

In this article, we estimate the quasi-local energy with reference to the Minkowski spacetime [16,17], the anti-de Sitter spacetime [4], or the Schwarzschild spacetime [3]. In each case, the reference spacetime admits a conformal Killing-Yano 2-form which facilitates the application of the Minkowski formula in [15] to estimate the quasi-local energy. As a consequence of the positive mass theorems in [9,13] and the above estimate, we obtain rigidity theorems which characterize the Minkowski spacetime and the hyperbolic space.

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arXiv2018

Wang and Yau's Quasi-Local Energy for an Extreme Kerr Spacetime

There exist constant radial surfaces, $\mathcal{S}$, that may not be globally embeddable in $\mathbb{R}^3$ for Kerr spacetimes with $a>\sqrt{3}M/2$. To compute the Brown and York (B-Y) quasi-local energy (QLE), one must isometrically embed $\mathcal{S}$ into $\mathbb{R}^3$. On the other hand, the Wang and Yau (W-Y) QLE embeds $\mathcal{S}$ into Minkowski space. In this paper, we examine the W-Y QLE for surfaces that may or may not be globally embeddable in $\mathbb{R}^3$. We show that their energy functional, $E[τ]$, has a critical point at $τ=0$ for all constant radial surfaces in $t=constant$ hypersurfaces using Boyer-Lindquist coordinates. For $τ=0$, the W-Y QLE reduces to the B-Y QLE. To examine the W-Y QLE in these cases, we write the functional explicitly in terms of $τ$ under the assumption that $τ$ is only a function of $θ$. We then use a Fourier expansion of $τ\left(θ\right)$ to explore the values of $E[τ\left(θ\right)]$ in the space of coefficients. From our analysis, we discovered an open region of complex values for $E[τ\left(θ\right)]$. We also study the physical properties of the smallest real value of $E[τ\left(θ\right)]$, which lies on the boundary separating real and complex energies.

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arXiv2016

Mean curvature flows in manifolds of special holonomy

We study the uniqueness of minimal submanifolds and the stability of the mean curvature flow in several well-known model spaces of manifolds of special holonomy. These include the Stenzel metric on the cotangent bundle of spheres, the Calabi metric on the cotangent bundle of complex projective spaces, and the Bryant--Salamon metrics on vector bundles over certain Einstein manifolds. In particular, we show that the zero sections, as calibrated submanifolds with respect to their respective ambient metrics, are unique among compact minimal submanifolds and are dynamically stable under the mean curvature flow. The proof relies on intricate interconnections of the Ricci flatness of the ambient space and the extrinsic geometry of the calibrated submanifolds.

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arXiv2016

Quasi-local mass at the null infinity of the Vaidya spacetime

There are two important statements regarding the Trautman-Bondi mass [1,8,5] at null infinity: one is the positivity [7,6], and the other is the Bondi mass loss formula [1], which are both global in nature. The positivity of the quasi-local mass can potentially lead to a local description at null infinity. This is confirmed for the Vaidya spacetime in this note. We study the Wang-Yau quasi-local mass on surfaces of fixed size at the null infinity of the Vaidya spacetime. The optimal embedding equation is solved explicitly and the quasi-local mass is evaluated in terms of the mass aspect function of the Vaidya spacetime.

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arXiv2016

Minkowski formulae and Alexandrov theorems in spacetime

The classical Minkowski formula is extended to spacelike codimension-two submanifolds in spacetimes which admit "hidden symmetry" from conformal Killing-Yano two-forms. As an application, we obtain an Alexandrov type theorem for spacelike codimension-two submanifolds in a static spherically symmetric spacetime: a codimension-two submanifold with constant normalized null expansion (null mean curvature) must lie in a shear-free (umbilical) null hypersurface. These results are generalized for higher order curvature invariants. In particular, the notion of mixed higher order mean curvature is introduced to highlight the special null geometry of the submanifold. Finally, Alexandrov type theorems are established for spacelike submanifolds with constant mixed higher order mean curvature, which are generalizations of hypersurfaces of constant Weingarten curvature in the Euclidean space.

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arXiv2016

Energy, momentum, and center of mass in general relativity

These notions in the title are of fundamental importance in any branch of physics. However, there have been great difficulties in finding physically acceptable definitions of them in general relativity since Einstein's time. I shall explain these difficulties and progresses that have been made. In particular, I shall introduce new definitions of center of mass and angular momentum at both the quasi-local and total levels, which are derived from first principles in general relativity and by the method of geometric analysis. With these new definitions, the classical formula p=mv is shown to be consistent with Einstein's field equation for the first time. This paper is based on joint work [14][15] with Po-Ning Chen and Shing-Tung Yau.

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arXiv2016

Generalized Lagrangian mean curvature flows: the cotangent bundle case

In [SW2], we defined a generalized mean curvature vector field on any almost Lagrangian submanifold with respect to a torsion connection on an almost Kähler manifold. The short time existence of the corresponding parabolic flow was established. In addition, it was shown that the flow preserves the Lagrangian condition as long as the connection satisfies an Einstein condition. In this article, we show that the canonical connection on the cotangent bundle of any Riemannian manifold is an Einstein connection (in fact, Ricci flat). The generalized mean curvature vector on any Lagrangian submanifold is related to the Lagrangian angle defined by the phase of a parallel (n, 0) form, just like the Calabi-Yau case. We also show that the corresponding Lagrangian mean curvature flow in cotangent bundles preserves the exactness and the zero Maslov class conditions. At the end, we prove a long time existence and convergence result to demonstrate the stability of the zero section of the cotangent bundle of spheres.

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arXiv2016

Quasi-local energy with respect to a static spacetime

This article considers the quasi-local energy in reference to a general static spacetime. We follow the approach developed by the authors in [19, 20, 7, 9] and define the quasi-local energy as a difference of surface Hamiltonians, which are derived from the Einstein-Hilbert action. The new quasi-local energy provides an effective gauge independent measurement of how far a spacetime deviates away from the reference static spacetime on a finitely extended region.

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arXiv2016

Quasi-local energy in presence of gravitational radiation

We discuss our recent work [4] in which gravitational radiation was studied by evaluating the Wang-Yau quasi-local mass of surfaces of fixed size at the infinity of both axial and polar perturbations of the Schwarzschild spacetime, à la Chandrasekhar [1].

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