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Robert Beig

Publications and source records attributed to Robert Beig.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Who's afraid of a negative lapse?

We rederive the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner equations in a framework in which the zeros of the lapse are innocuous, whether with or without changes of sign. We further develop and analyse a covariantized version of the Anderson-York equations, which provide a well posed system of tensorial evolution equations with freely prescribable shift vector and densitised lapse. The causality properties of the resulting equations are explored. We show how to relate solutions of the Anderson-York equations to the maximal globally hyperbolic development of the initial data.

gr-qc

Relativistic Elasticity II

This paper is based on a series of talks given at the ESI program on 'Mathematical Perspectives of Gravitation Beyond the Vacuum Regime' in February 2022. It is meant to be an introduction to the field of relativistic elasticity for readers with a good base in the mathematics of General Relativity with no necessary previous of knowledge of elasticity either in the classical or relativistic domain. Despite its introductory purpose, the present work has new material, in particular related to the formal structure of the theory.

gr-qc

Mechanics of floating bodies

We introduce and study the mechanical system which describes the dynamics and statics of rigid bodies of constant density floating in a calm incompressible fluid. Since much of the standard equilibrium theory, starting with Archimedes, allows bodies with vertices and edges, we assume the bodies to be convex and take care not to assume more regularity than that implied by convexity. One main result is the (Liapunoff) stability of equilibria satisfying a condition equivalent to the standard 'metacentric' criterion.

physics.class-ph

On linearised vacuum constraint equations on Einstein manifolds

We show how to parameterise solutions of the general relativistic vector constraint equation on Einstein manifolds by unconstrained potentials. We provide a similar construction for the trace-free part of tensors satisfying the linearised scalar constraint. Previous work of ours has provided similar different constructions for solutions of the linearized constraints in the case where the cosmological constant $\Lambda$ is zero. We use our new potentials to show that one can shield linearised gravitational fields using linearised gravitational fields without imposing the TT gauge (as done in previous work), for any value of $\Lambda \in \mathbb{R}$.

gr-qc

Vacuum initial data on $\mathbb{S}^3$ from Killing vectors

We construct compact initial data of constant mean curvature $\widetilde{K}$ for Einstein's 4d vacuum equations with $\widehat{\Lambda} = \Lambda - (\widetilde{K}^2/3)$ positive, where $\Lambda$ is the cosmological constant, via the conformal method. To construct a transverse, trace-free (TT) momentum tensor explicitly we first observe that, if the seed manifold has two orthogonal Killing vectors, their symmetrized tensor product is a natural TT candidate. Without the orthogonality requirement, but on locally conformally flat seed manifolds there is a generalized construction for the momentum which also involves the derivatives of the Killing fields found in work by Beig and Krammer [2]. We consider in particular the round three sphere and classify the TT tensors resulting from all possible pairs of its six Killing vectors, focusing on the commuting case where the seed data are $\mathbb{U}(1) \times \mathbb{U}(1)$ -symmetric. As to solving the Lichnerowicz equation, we discuss in particular potential "symmetry breaking" by which we mean that solutions have less symmetries than the equation itself; we compare with the case of the "round donut" of topology $\mathbb{S}^2 \times \mathbb{S}$. In the absence of symmetry breaking, the Lichnerowicz equation for a $\mathbb{U}(1) \times \mathbb{U}(1)$ symmetric momentum on $\mathbb{S}^3$ reduces to an ODE. We analyze distinguished families of solutions and the resulting data via a combination of analytical and numerical techniques. Finally we investigate marginally trapped surfaces of toroidal topology in our data.

gr-qc

Weakly gravitating isotropic waveguides

We analyse the effect of post-Newtonian gravitational fields on propagation of light in a cylindrical waveguide in both a straight configuration and a spool configuration. We derive an equation for the dependence of the wave vector upon the vertical location of the waveguide. It is shown that the gravitational field produces a small shift in the wave vector, which we determine, while the spooling creates additional modes which could perhaps be measurable in future accurate experiments.

gr-qc

Celestial mechanics of elastic bodies II

We construct time independent configurations describing a small elastic body moving in a circular orbit in the Schwarzschild spacetime. These configurations are relativistic versions of Newtonian solutions constructed previously by us. In the process we simplify and sharpen previous results of ours concerning elastic bodies in rigid rotation.

gr-qc

Generalized relativistic hydrodynamics with a convex extension

We propose a new model which describes relativistic hydrodynamics and generalizes the standard Euler system of isentropic perfect fluids. Remarkably, our system admits a convex extension which allows us to transform it to a symmetric hyperbolic form. This result sheds new light even on the relativistic Euler system.

gr-qc

Elastic deformations of compact stars

We prove existence of solutions for an elastic body interacting with itself through its Newtonian gravitational field. Our construction works for configurations near one given by a self-gravitating ball of perfect fluid. We use an implicit function argument. In so doing we have to revisit some classical work in the astrophysical literature concerning linear stability of perfect fluid stars. The results presented here extend previous work by the authors, which was restricted to the astrophysically insignificant situation of configurations near one of vanishing stress. In particular, "mountains on neutron stars", which are made possible by the presence of an elastic crust in neutron stars, can be treated using the techniques developed here.

gr-qc

Uniqueness of Flat Spherically Symmetric Spacelike Hypersurfaces Admitted by Spherically Symmetric Static Spactimes

It is known that spherically symmetric static spacetimes admit a foliation by °at hypersurfaces. Such foliations have explicitly been constructed for some spacetimes, using different approaches, but none of them have proved or even discussed the uniqueness of these foliations. The issue of uniqueness becomes more important due to suitability of °at foliations for studying black hole physics. Here °at spherically symmetric spacelike hy- persurfaces are obtained by a direct method. It is found that spherically symmetric static spacetimes admit °at spherically symmetric hypersurfaces, and that these hypersurfaces are unique up to translation under the time- like Killing vector. This result guarantees the uniqueness of °at spherically symmetric foliations for such spacetimes.

gr-qc

The stationary n-body problem in general relativity

In this talk I describe recent joint works with R.Schoen and with G.Gibbons and R.Schoen which prove the non-existence of certain asymptotically flat, stationary solutions of the Einstein equations with more than one body. The basic restriction is for example satisfied when spacetime has an isometry reversing the sign of the timelike Killing vector and fixing a hypersurface in the space of Killing trajectories which is disjoint from the bodies. I also give a detailed treatment of the Newtonian situation.

gr-qc

Gravitating Opposites Attract

Generalizing previous work by two of us, we prove the non-existence of certain stationary configurations in General Relativity having a spatial reflection symmetry across a non-compact surface disjoint from the matter region. Our results cover cases such that of two symmetrically arranged rotating bodies with anti-aligned spins in $n+1$ ($n \geq 3$) dimensions, or two symmetrically arranged static bodies with opposite charges in 3+1 dimensions. They also cover certain symmetric configurations in (3+1)-dimensional gravity coupled to a collection of scalars and abelian vector fields, such as arise in supergravity and Kaluza-Klein models. We also treat the bosonic sector of simple supergravity in 4+1 dimensions.

gr-qc

Celestial mechanics of elastic bodies

We construct time independent configurations of two gravitating elastic bodies. These configurations either correspond to the two bodies moving in a circular orbit around their center of mass or strictly static configurations.

gr-qc

Helical Solutions in Scalar Gravity

We construct solutions, for small values of $G$ and angular frequency $Ω$, of special relativistic scalar gravity coupled to ideally elastic matter which have helical but no stationary or axial symmetry. They correspond to a body without any symmetries in steady rotation around one of its axes of inertia, or two bodies moving on a circle around their center of gravity. Our construction is rigorous, but modulo an unproved conjecture on the differentiability of a certain functional.

gr-qc

On Static n-body Configurations in Relativity

The static n-body problem of General Relativity states that there are, under a reasonable energy condition, no static $n$-body configurations for $n > 1$, provided the configuration of the bodies satisfies a suitable separation condition. In this paper we solve this problem in the case that there exists a closed, noncompact, totally geodesic surface disjoint from the bodies. This covers the situation where the configuration has a reflection symmetry across a noncompact surface disjoint from the bodies.

gr-qc

Static self-gravitating elastic bodies in Einstein gravity

We prove that given a stress-free elastic body there exists, for sufficiently small values of the gravitational constant, a unique static solution of the Einstein equations coupled to the equations of relativistic elasticity. The solution constructed is a small deformation of the relaxed configuration. This result yields the first proof of existence of static solutions of the Einstein equations without symmetries.

gr-qc

Rotating elastic bodies in Einstein gravity

We prove that, given a stress-free, axially symmetric elastic body, there exists, for sufficiently small values of the gravitational constant and of the angular frequency, a unique stationary axisymmetric solution to the Einstein equations coupled to the equations of relativistic elasticity with the body performing rigid rotations around the symmetry axis at the given angular frequency.

gr-qc

Relativistic Aberration for Accelerating Observers

We investigate the effects of the aberration of light for a uniformly accelerating observer. The observer we consider is initially at rest with respect to a luminous spherical object--a star, say--and then starts to move away with constant acceleration. The main results we derive are the following: (i) The observer always sees an initial increase of the apparent size of the object; (ii) The apparent size of the object approaches a non-zero value as the proper time of the observer goes to infinity. (iii) There exists a critical value of the acceleration such that the apparent size of the object is always increasing when the acceleration is super-critical. We show that, while (i) is a purely non-relativistic effect, (ii) and (iii) are effects of the relativistic aberration of light and are intimately connected with the Lorentzian geometry of Minkowksi spacetime. Finally, the examples we present illustrate that, while more or less negligible in everyday life, the three effects can be significant in the context of space-flight.

physics.class-ph