Isotropic cosmological singularities 2: The Einstein-Vlasov system

We consider the conformal Einstein equations for massless collisionless gas cosmologies which admit an isotropic singularity. After developing the general theory, we restrict to spatially-homogeneous cosmologies. We show that the Cauchy problem for these equations is well-posed with data consisting of the limiting particle distribution function at the singularity.Comment: LaTeX, 37 pages, no figures, submitted to Ann. Phy

Fuchsian methods and spacetime singularities

Fuchsian methods and their applications to the study of the structure of spacetime singularities are surveyed. The existence question for spacetimes with compact Cauchy horizons is discussed. After some basic facts concerning Fuchsian equations have been recalled, various ways in which these equations have been applied in general relativity are described. Possible future applications are indicated

Manufacture of Gowdy spacetimes with spikes

In numerical studies of Gowdy spacetimes evidence has been found for the development of localized features (spikes) involving large gradients near the singularity. The rigorous mathematical results available up to now did not cover this kind of situation. In this work we show the existence of large classes of Gowdy spacetimes exhibiting features of the kind discovered numerically. These spacetimes are constructed by applying certain transformations to previously known spacetimes without spikes. It is possible to control the behaviour of the Kretschmann scalar near the singularity in detail. This curvature invariant is found to blow up in a way which is non-uniform near the spike in some cases. When this happens it demonstrates that the spike is a geometrically invariant feature and not an artefact of the choice of variables used to parametrize the metric. We also identify another class of spikes which are artefacts. The spikes produced by our method are compared with the results of numerical and heuristic analyses of the same situation.Comment: 25 page

Curvature blow up in Bianchi VIII and IX vacuum spacetimes

The maximal globally hyperbolic development of non-Taub-NUT Bianchi IX vacuum initial data and of non-NUT Bianchi VIII vacuum initial data is C2 inextendible. Furthermore, a curvature invariant is unbounded in the incomplete directions of inextendible causal geodesics.Comment: 20 pages, no figures. Submitted to Classical and Quantum Gravit

Mixmaster Behavior in Inhomogeneous Cosmological Spacetimes

Numerical investigation of a class of inhomogeneous cosmological spacetimes shows evidence that at a generic point in space the evolution toward the initial singularity is asymptotically that of a spatially homogeneous spacetime with Mixmaster behavior. This supports a long-standing conjecture due to Belinskii et al. on the nature of the generic singularity in Einstein's equations.Comment: 4 pages plus 4 figures. A sentence has been deleted. Accepted for publication in PR

Dynamics of spatially homogeneous solutions of the Einstein-Vlasov equations which are locally rotationally symmetric

The dynamics of a class of cosmological models with collisionless matter and four Killing vectors is studied in detail and compared with that of corresponding perfect fluid models. In many cases it is possible to identify asymptotic states of the spacetimes near the singularity or in a phase of unlimited expansion. Bianchi type II models show oscillatory behaviour near the initial singularity which is, however, simpler than that of the mixmaster model.Comment: 27 pages, 3 figures, LaTe

The Newtonian Limit for Asymptotically Flat Solutions of the Vlasov-Einstein System

It is shown that there exist families of asymptotically flat solutions of the Einstein equations coupled to the Vlasov equation describing a collisionless gas which have a Newtonian limit. These are sufficiently general to confirm that for this matter model as many families of this type exist as would be expected on the basis of physical intuition. A central role in the proof is played by energy estimates in unweighted Sobolev spaces for a wave equation satisfied by the second fundamental form of a maximal foliation.Comment: 24 pages, plain TE

The Einstein-Vlasov sytem/Kinetic theory

The main purpose of this article is to guide the reader to theorems on global properties of solutions to the Einstein-Vlasov system. This system couples Einstein's equations to a kinetic matter model. Kinetic theory has been an important field of research during several decades where the main focus has been on nonrelativistic- and special relativistic physics, e.g. to model the dynamics of neutral gases, plasmas and Newtonian self-gravitating systems. In 1990 Rendall and Rein initiated a mathematical study of the Einstein-Vlasov system. Since then many theorems on global properties of solutions to this system have been established. The Vlasov equation describes matter phenomenologically and it should be stressed that most of the theorems presented in this article are not presently known for other such matter models (e.g. fluid models). The first part of this paper gives an introduction to kinetic theory in non-curved spacetimes and then the Einstein-Vlasov system is introduced. We believe that a good understanding of kinetic theory in non-curved spacetimes is fundamental in order to get a good comprehension of kinetic theory in general relativity.Comment: 31 pages. This article has been submitted to Living Rev. Relativity (http://www.livingreviews.org

Existence of families of spacetimes with a Newtonian limit

J\"urgen Ehlers developed \emph{frame theory} to better understand the relationship between general relativity and Newtonian gravity. Frame theory contains a parameter $\lambda$, which can be thought of as $1/c^2$, where $c$ is the speed of light. By construction, frame theory is equivalent to general relativity for $\lambda >0$, and reduces to Newtonian gravity for $\lambda =0$. Moreover, by setting \ep=\sqrt{\lambda}, frame theory provides a framework to study the Newtonian limit \ep \searrow 0 (i.e. $c\to \infty$). A number of ideas relating to frame theory that were introduced by J\"urgen have subsequently found important applications to the rigorous study of both the Newtonian limit and post-Newtonian expansions. In this article, we review frame theory and discuss, in a non-technical fashion, some of the rigorous results on the Newtonian limit and post-Newtonian expansions that have followed from J\"urgen's work