The main objective of the paper is to prove a geometric version of sharp trace and product estimates on null hypersurfaces with finite curvature flux. These estimates play a crucial role to control the geometry of such null hypersurfaces. The paper is based on an invariant version of the classical Littlewood -Paley theory, in a noncommutative setting, defined via heat flow on surfaces.
The main objective of this paper is to control the geometry of null cones with time foliation in Einstein vacuum spacetime under the assumptions of small curvature flux and a weaker condition on the deformation tensor for $\bT$. We establish a series of estimates on Ricci coefficients, which plays a crucial role to prove the improved breakdown criterion in [12].
The paper is concerned with regularity properties of boundaries of causal pasts of points in a 3+1-dimensional Einstein-vacuum spacetime. In a Lorentzian manifold such boundaries play crucial role in propagation of linear and nonlinear waves. We prove a uniform lower bound on the radius of injectivity of these null boundaries in terms of the Riemann curvature flux along them and some additional quantities arising specifically in a problem of a large data breakdown criterion in General Relativity
The spherically symmetric null hypersurfaces in a Schwarzschild spacetime are smooth away from the singularities and foliate the spacetime. We prove the existence of more general foliations by null hypersurfaces without the spherical symmetry condition. In fact we also relax the spherical symmetry of the ambient spacetime and prove a more general result: in a perturbed Schwarzschild spacetime (not necessary being vacuum), nearly round null hypersurfaces can be extended regularly to the past null infinity, thus there exist many foliations by regular null hypersurfaces in the exterior region of …
We introduce a new elliptic operator on null hypersurfaces of four-dimensional Lorentzian manifolds. This operator depends on the first and second fundamental forms of the sections of a foliation of the null hypersurface and its novelty originates from its covariant transformation under change of foliation. It thus provides at any point an elliptic structure intimately connected with the geometry of the null hypersurface, independent of the choice of a specific section through that point. No analytic or algebraic symmetries or other conditions are imposed on the metric. The spectral properties…
We study the mean curvature flow in 3-dimensional null hypersurfaces. In a spacetime a hypersurface is called null, if its induced metric is degenerate. The speed of the mean curvature flow of spacelike surfaces in a null hypersurface is the projection of the codimension-two mean curvature vector onto the null hypersurface. We impose fairly mild conditions on the null hypersurface. Then for an outer un-trapped initial surface, a condition which resembles the mean-convexity of a surface in Euclidean space, we prove that the mean curvature flow exists for all times and converges smoothly to a ma…
We obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of "conservation laws" on null hypersurfaces for the wave equation on general four-dimensional Lorentzian manifolds. Examples of null hypersurfaces exhibiting such conservation laws include the standard null cones of Minkowski spacetime and the degenerate horizons of extremal black holes. Another (limiting) example of such a conservation law is that which gives rise to the well-known Newman-Penrose constants along the null infinity of asymptotically flat spacetimes. The existence of such conservation laws can be viewed as an obstr…
We prove the two theorems of the title, settling two long standing questions in the local theory of singular minimal hypersurfaces. The sharpness of either result is with respect to its hypothesis on the size of the allowable singular sets. The proofs of both theorems rely heavily on the author's recent regularity and compactness theory for stable minimal hypersurfaces, and on earlier work of Ilmanen, Simon and Solomon--White.
Let $\mathcal{H}$ denote the future outgoing null hypersurface emanating from a spacelike 2-sphere $S$ in a vacuum spacetime $(\mathcal{M},\mathbf{g})$. In this paper we study the so-called canonical foliation on $\mathcal{H}$ introduced by Klainerman and Nicolò and show that the corresponding geometry is controlled locally only in terms of the initial geometry on $S$ and the $L^2$ curvature flux through $\mathcal{H}$. In particular, we show that the ingoing and outgoing null expansions $\mathrm{tr} χ$ and $\mathrm{tr} \underlineχ$ are both locally uniformly bounded. The proof of our estimates…
We prove that the boundary of a (not necessarily connected) bounded smooth set with constant nonlocal mean curvature is a sphere. More generally, and in contrast with what happens in the classical case, we show that the Lipschitz constant of the nonlocal mean curvature of such a boundary controls its $C^2$-distance from a single sphere. The corresponding stability inequality is obtained with a sharp decay rate.
In [5], Colding-Ilmanen-Minicozzi-White showed that within the class of closed smooth self-shrinkers in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, the entropy is uniquely minimized at the round sphere. They conjectured that, for $2\leq n\leq 6$, the round sphere minimizes the entropy among all closed smooth hypersurfaces. Using an appropriate weak mean curvature flow, we prove their conjecture. For these dimensions, our approach also gives a new proof of the main result of [5] and extends its conclusions to compact singular self-shrinkers.
In this paper we consider complete noncompact Riemannian manifolds $(M, g)$ with nonnegative Ricci curvature and Euclidean volume growth, of dimension $n \geq 3$. We prove a sharp Willmore-type inequality for closed hypersurfaces $\partial Ω$ in $M$, with equality holding true if and only if $(M{\setminus}Ω, g)$ is isometric to a truncated cone over $\partialΩ$. An optimal version of Huisken's Isoperimetric Inequality for $3$-manifolds is obtained using this result. Finally, exploiting a natural extension of our techniques to the case of parabolic manifolds, we also deduce an enhanced version …
Using the weak solution of Inverse mean curvature flow, we prove the sharp Minkowski-type inequality for outward minimizing hypersurfaces in Schwarzschild space.
General hypersurfaces of any causal character can be studied abstractly using the hypersurface data formalism. In the null case, we write down all tangential components of the ambient Ricci tensor in terms of the abstract data. Using this formalism, we formulate and solve in a completely abstract way the characteristic Cauchy problem of the Einstein vacuum field equations. The initial data is detached from any spacetime notion, and it is fully diffeomorphism and gauge covariant. The results of this paper put the characteristic problem on a similar footing as the standard Cauchy problem in Gene…
In this paper we study the spacelike-characteristic Cauchy problem for the Einstein vacuum equations. We prove that given initial data on a maximal compact spacelike hypersurface $Σ\simeq \overline{B(0,1)} \subset \mathbb{R}^3$ and the outgoing null hypersurface $\mathcal{H}$ emanating from $\partial Σ$, the time of existence of a solution to the Einstein vacuum equations is controlled by low regularity bounds on the initial data at the level of curvature in $L^2$. The proof uses the bounded $L^2$ curvature theorem by Klainerman, Szeftel and Rodnianski, the extension procedure for the constrai…
We prove a version the Penrose inequality for black hole space-times which are perturbations of the Schwarzschild exterior in a slab around a null hypersurface $\underline{\mathcal{N}}_0$. $\underline{\mathcal{N}}_0$ terminates at past null infinity $\mathcal{I}^-$ and $\mathcal{S}_0:=\partial\underline{\mathcal{N}}_0$ is chosen to be a marginally outer trapped sphere. We show that the area of $\mathcal{S}_0$ yields a lower bound for the Bondi energy of sections of past null infinity, thus also for the total ADM energy. Our argument is perturbative, and rests on suitably deforming the initial …
We establish a sharp bilinear estimate for the Klein--Gordon propagator in the spirit of recent work of Beltran--Vega. Our approach is inspired by work in the setting of the wave equation due to Bez, Jeavons and Ozawa. As a consequence of our main bilinear estimate, we deduce several sharp estimates of null-form type and recover some sharp Strichartz estimates found by Quilodrán and Jeavons.
We prove global stability for a system of nonlinear wave equations satisfying a generalized null condition. The generalized null condition allows for null forms whose coefficients have bounded $C^k$ norms. We prove both pointwise decay and improved decay of good derivatives using bilinear energy estimates and duality arguments. Combining this strategy with the $r^p$ estimates of Dafermos--Rodnianski then allows us to prove global stability. The proof requires analyzing the geometry of intersecting null hypersurfaces adapted to solutions of wave equations.
Recently Wolff obtained a nearly sharp $L^2$ bilinear restriction theorem for bounded subsets of the cone in general dimension. We obtain the endpoint of Wolff's estimate and generalize to the case when one of the subsets is large. As a consequence, we are able to deduce some nearly-sharp $L^p$ null form estimates.
We are interested in the three-dimensional quasilinear wave equations with null condition. Global existence and pointwise decay for this model have been proved in the celebrated works of Klainerman \cite{Klainerman86} and Christodoulou \cite{Christodoulou86} for small smooth initial data. In this work, we illustrate the precise pointwise asymptotic behavior of the solutions for initial data posed on a hyperboloid and show that the decay rate $v^{-1}u^{-1}$ is optimal for a generic set of initial data.
This is the second paper in a series of papers adressing the characteristic gluing problem for the Einstein vacuum equations. We solve the codimension-$10$ characteristic gluing problem for characteristic data which are close to the Minkowski data. We derive an infinite-dimensional space of gauge-dependent charges and a $10$-dimensional space of gauge-invariant charges that are conserved by the linearized null constraint equations and act as obstructions to the gluing problem. The gauge-dependent charges can be matched by applying angular and transversal gauge transformations of the characteri…
In a recent important breakthrough D. Christodoulou has solved a long standing problem of General Relativity of evolutionary formation of trapped surfaces in the Einstein-vacuum space-times. He has identified an open set of regular initial conditions on an outgoing null hypersurface (both finite and at past null infinity) leading to a formation a trapped surface in the corresponding vacuum space-time to the future of the initial outgoing hypersurface and another incoming null hypersurface with the prescribed Minkowskian data. In this paper we give a simpler proof for a finite problem by enlarg…
