Abstract
We consider the class of smooth, maximally extended, globally hyperbolic, vacuum, Gowdy spacetimes onT 3×R and prove that these spacetimes are globally foliated by space-like, constant mean curvature hypersurfaces. Our results can easily be extended to cover electrovac solutions of the same symmetry type and can probably be extended to cover other spacetime topologies as well.
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For a discussion of this conjecture and its relevance to the cosmic censorship conjecture see Moncrief, V., Eardley, D.: Gen. Rel. Grav.13, 887 (1981)
Eardley, D., Smarr, L.: Phys. Rev.D19, 2239 (1979). This paper discusses primarily the analogous conjecture in the non-compact case and introduces the notion of “crushing singularities” which will play an important role in the present paper
The hypersurfaces of transitivity of the isometry group automatically have constant mean curvature in such models. This result is independent of Einstein's equations
Gowdy, R.: Ann. Phys. (N.Y.)83, 203 (1974). See also Gowdy, R.: Phys. Rev. Lett.27, 826 and 1102(E) (1971)
Marsden, J., Tipler, F.: Phys. Rep.66, 109 (1980)
Sources of gravitational radiation. Smarr, L., (ed.) Cambridge: Cambridge Press, 1979; see especially the articles by York, J., Eardley, D., Smarr, L., Wilson, J.
Moncrief, V.: Ann. Phys. (N.Y.)132, 87 (1980)
The extra restrictions involve the alignment of the principal axes of expansion of the spacetime with the axes of toroidal identification. See the first paper of [4] for a more complete discussion
The basic global existence theorem referred to in this paper is proven in [7] where it is also shown that the Gowdy models always have crushing singularities in the sense of Eardley and Smarr (c.f. [2])
The Marsden-Tipler arguments require some slight modifications to be applicable to the spacetimes considered here. Their requirement that (M, g) be non-flat can be replaced by the requirement that (M, g) admit no global timelike Killing field. In particular, the flat Kasner solution used below in this paper need not be excluded. Furthermore, one can replace the phrase “maximal hypersurface” by “constant mean curvature hypersurface” in Marsden and Tipler's argument and prove the analogous theorem using the same methods. The modified version of their Theorem (3) does not lead to “Wheeler universes” but still implies the existence of global CMC foliations
Fischer, A., Marsden, J., Moncrief, V.: Ann. Inst. H. Poincaré,33, 147 (1980). See Proposition 2.3 and the discussion immediately following. The condition π0 ≠ 0 org 0 is not flat excludes precisely those spacetimes which have a timelike Killing field. No Gowdy metric has such a Killing field.
See Corollary (2) on p. 121 of [5]
Brill, D., Flaherty, F.: Commun. Math. Phys.50, 157 (1976). For the vacuum case see [14]
See especially the discussion on pp. 119–120 of [5]
See the remarks regarding flat spacetimes in [10]
The continuity argument associated with Theorem (4) of [5] can easily be modified to cover the spacetimes studied here. The needed modifications are essentially the same as those discussed in [10]. The modified theorem implies the existence of a CMC hypersurface instead of a maximal one
Moncrief, V.: Lagrangian submanifolds of extendible spacetimes. (in preparation)
See the second paper of [4]
Moncrief, V.: Neighborhoods of Cauchy horizons in cosmological spacetimes with one killing field. Ann. Phys. (N.Y.)141, 83 (1982).
For a nice discussion of the properties of Taub-NUT spacetime see Hawking, S.W., Ellis, G.F.R., The large scale structure of spacetime. Cambridge: Cambridge Press 1973
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Communicated by S.-T. Yau
Research supported in part by NSF grant No. PHY79-16482 at Yale and No. PHY79-13146 at Berkeley
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Isenberg, J., Moncrief, V. The existence of constant mean curvature foliations of Gowdy 3-torus spacetimes. Commun.Math. Phys. 86, 485–493 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01214884
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01214884