We prove that smooth asymptotically flat solutions to the Einstein vacuum equations which are assumed to be periodic in time, are in fact stationary in a neighborhood of infinity. Our result applies under physically relevant regularity assumptions purely at the level of the initial data. In particular, our work removes the assumption of analyticity up to null infinity in [Bicak, Scholtz, and Tod; 2010]. The proof relies on extending a suitably constructed "candidate" Killing vector field from null infinity, via Carleman-type estimates obtained in [Alexakis, Schlue, Shao; 2013].
Adapting Israel's proof of static black hole uniqueness, we show that the Schwarzschild spacetime is the only static vacuum asymptotically flat spacetime that possesses a suitably defined photon sphere.
We develop a general method of proving the ellipticity of boundary value problems for the stationary vacuum space time, by showing that the stationary vacuum field equations are elliptic subjected to a geometrically natural collection of boundary conditions in the projection formalism. Using this we prove the manifold theorem for the moduli space of stationary vacuum spacetimes.
We establish a moduli space $\mathbb E$ of stationary vacuum metrics in a spacetime, and set up a well-defined boundary map $Π$ in $\mathbb E$, assigning a metric class with its Bartnik boundary data. Furthermore, we prove the boundary map $Π$ is Fredholm by showing that the stationary vacuum equations (combined with proper gauge terms) and the Bartnik boundary conditions form an elliptic boundary value problem. As an application, we show that the Bartnik boundary data near the standard flat boundary data admits a unique (up to diffeomorphism) stationary vacuum extension locally.
In a recent paper, the authors established the uniqueness of photon spheres in static vacuum asymptotically flat spacetimes by adapting Bunting and Masood-ul-Alam's proof of static vacuum black hole uniqueness. Here, we establish uniqueness of suitably defined sub-extremal photon spheres in static electro-vacuum asymptotically flat spacetimes by adapting the argument of Masood-ul-Alam. As a consequence of our result, we can rule out the existence of electrostatic configurations involving multiple "very compact" electrically charged bodies and sub-extremal black holes.
In this paper, we construct a class of collapsing spacetimes in vacuum without any symmetries. The spacetime contains a black hole region which is bounded from the past by the future event horizon. It possesses a Cauchy hypersurface with trivial topology which is located outside the black hole region. Based on existing techniques in the literature, the spacetime can in principle be constructed to be past geodesically complete and asymptotic to Minkowski space. The construction is based on a semi-global existence result of the vacuum Einstein equations built on a modified version of the a prior…
In the first part of this paper we consider expanding vacuum cosmological spacetimes with a free $T^N$-action. Among them, we give evidence that Gowdy spacetimes have AVTD (asymptotically velocity term dominated) behavior for their initial geometry, in any dimension. We then give sufficient conditions to reach a similar conclusion about a $T^2$-invariant four dimensional nonGowdy spacetime. In the second part of the paper we consider vacuum cosmological spacetimes with crushing singularities. We introduce a monotonic quantity to characterize Kasner spacetimes. Assuming scale-invariant curvatur…
We study the geometry of a general class of vacuum asymptotically Anti-de Sitter spacetimes near the conformal boundary. In particular, the spacetime is only assumed to have finite regularity, and it is allowed to have arbitrary boundary topology and geometry. For the main results, we derive limits at the conformal boundary of various geometric quantities, and we use these limits to construct partial Fefferman--Graham expansions from the boundary. The results of this article will be applied, in upcoming papers, toward proving symmetry extension and gravity--boundary correspondence theorems for…
In quantum theory of the free Dirac field on spatially flat FLRW spacetimes we introduce a new type of vacuum able to separate the positive and negative frequencies in the rest frames. This is refereed as the rest frame vacuum shoving that this differs from the adiabatic vacuum apart from the Minkowski spacetime where these two vacua coincide.
We establish a complete classification theorem for the topology and for the null generators of compact non-degenerate Cauchy horizons of time orientable smooth vacuum $3+1$-spacetimes. We show that, either: (i) all generators are closed, or (ii) only two generators are closed and any other densely fills a two-torus, or (iii) every generator densely fills a two-torus, or (iv) every generator densely fills the horizon. We then show that, respectively to (i)-(iv), the horizon's manifold is either: (i') a Seifert manifold, or (ii') a lens space, or (iii') a two-torus bundle over a circle, or, (iv'…
Presently, the inclusion of the vacuum energy in the energy momentum tensor, and the inclusion of the extra dimensions in the spacetime, can not be rule out of the research in gravitation. In this work we study the influence of the vacuum energy in the collapse process of a stellar fluid, and consequently for the cosmic censorship conjecture, considering a homogeneous and isotropic spacetime with arbitrary number of dimensions. We discuss the active gravitational mass of the black hole formed, where the vacuum energy and the number of dimensions has a crucial role in the process.
Equipped with new powerful and efficient methods for computing quantum expectation values in static-spherically symmetric spacetimes in arbitrary dimensions, we perform an in-depth investigation of how the quantum vacuum polarization varies with the parameters in the theory. In particular, we compute and compare the vacuum polarization for a quantum scalar field in the Schwarzschild anti-de Sitter black hole spacetime for a range of values of the field mass and field coupling constant as well as the black hole mass and number of spacetime dimensions. In addition, a new approximation for the va…
The possibility of time travel through the geodesics of vacuum solutions in first order gravity is explored. We present explicit examples of such geometries, which contain degenerate as well as nondegenerate tetrad fields that are sewn together continuously over different regions of the spacetime. These classical solutions to the field equations satisfy the energy conditions.
We use Fuchsian Reduction to study the behavior near the singularity of a class of solutions of Einstein's vacuum equations. These solutions admit two commuting spacelike Killing fields like the Gowdy spacetimes, but their twist does not vanish. The spacetimes are also polarized in the sense that one of the `gravitational degrees of freedom' is turned off. Examining an analytic family of solutions with the maximum number of arbitrary functions, we find that they are all asymptotically velocity-term dominated as one approaches the singularity.
We perform a rescaling analysis to analyze the future behavior of a class of $T^2$-symmetric vacuum spacetimes. We show that on the universal cover, there is $C^0$-convergence to a spatially homogeneous spacetime that does not satisfy the vacuum Einstein equations.
We study the role that both vacuum fluctuations and vacuum entanglement of a scalar field play in identifying the spacetime topology, which is not prescribed from first principles---neither in general relativity or quantum gravity. We analyze how the entanglement and observable correlations acquired between two particle detectors are sensitive to the spatial topology of spacetime. We examine the detector's time evolution to all orders in perturbation theory and then study the phenomenon of vacuum entanglement harvesting in Minkowski spacetime and two flat topologically distinct spacetimes cons…
We analyse vacuum decay in rotating BTZ black hole spacetimes with the thin wall approximation. Possible parameter regions for the vacuum decay are clarified. We find that the nucleation rate is dominated by the bounce solution with the static shell configuration. The nucleation rate of the static shell decreases with the mass of the initial black hole. For a larger/smaller value of the initial black hole, the nucleation rate can be smaller/larger than that of the Coleman De Luccia vacuum decay in the pure AdS spacetime. Through the vacuum decay, the black hole gains its mass and loses the hor…
We construct and study the vacuum polarization, $\langle ϕ^{2}\rangle_{D},$ of the quantized massive scalar field with a general curvature coupling parameter in higher-dimensional static and spherically-symmetric black hole spacetimes, with a special emphasis put on the electrically charged Tangherlini solutions and the extremal and ultraextremal configurations. For $4 \leq D \leq 7$ the explicit analytic expressions for the vacuum polarization are given. For the conformally coupled fields the relation between the trace of the stress-energy tensor and the vacuum polarization is examined, which…
An exhaustive list of four-dimensional $Λ$-vacuum spacetimes admitting a Killing vector whose self-dual Killing two-form ${\cal F}$ is null is obtained assuming that the self-dual Weyl tensor is proportional to the tensor product of ${\cal F}$ by itself. Our analysis complements previous results concerning the case with non-null ${\cal F}$. We analyze both cases with $Λ$ vanishing or not. In the latter case we prove that $Λ< 0$ must hold necessarily, and we find a characterization of the Einstein spacetimes conformal to pp-waves. In the former case we obtain spacetime characterizations of vacu…
We study a false vacuum decay in a two-dimensional black hole spacetime background. The decay rate in the case that nucleation site locates at a black hole center has been calculated in the literature. We develop a method for calculating the decay rate of the false vacuum for a generic nucleation site. We find that the decay rate becomes larger when the nucleation site is close to the black hole horizon and coincides with that in Minkowski spacetime when the nucleation site goes to infinity.
We compute the vacuum polarization of a massless minimally co pled scalar field in a background given by a black hole with subtracted geometry. Extending previous results for the horizon of rotating black holes with no charge, we obtain an analytical expression for the vacuum polarization that is valid throughout the spacetime and for arbitrary rotation and charge parameters. The vacuum polarization diverges at the inner horizon and the quantum state cannot be extended to the inside of it.
Consideration of vacuum polarization in quantum electrodynamics may affect the momentum dispersion relation for photons for a non-trivial background, due to appearance of curvature dependent terms in the effective action. We investigate the effect of a positive cosmological constant $Λ$ on this at one loop order for stationary $Λ$-vacuum spacetimes. To the best of our knowledge, so far it has been shown that $Λ$ affects the propagation in a time dependent black hole spacetime. Here we consider the static de Sitter cosmic string and the Kerr-de Sitter spacetime to show that there can be some no…
Spacetimes, which are representations of a bridge-like geometry in gravity theory, are constructed as vacuum solutions to the first order equations of motion. Each such configuration consists of two copies of an asymptotically flat sheet, connected by a bridge of finite extension where tetrad is noninvertible. These solutions can be classified into static and non-static spacetimes. The associated SO(3,1) invariant fields, namely the metric, affine connection and field-strength tensor, are all continuous across the hypersurfaces connecting the invertible and noninvertible phases of tetrad and a…
