"Regularity Singularities" and the Scattering of Gravity Waves in Approximate Locally Inertial Frames

It is an open question whether solutions of the Einstein-Euler equations are smooth enough to admit locally inertial coordinates at points of shock wave interaction, or whether "regularity singularities" can exist at such points. The term {\it regularity singularity} was proposed by the authors as a point in spacetime where the gravitational metric tensor is Lipschitz continuous ($C^{0,1}$), but no smoother, in any coordinate system of the $C^{1,1}$ atlas. An existence theory for shock wave solutions in $C^{0,1}$ admitting arbitrary interactions has been proven for the Einstein-Euler equations in spherically symmetric spacetimes, but $C^{1,1}$ is the requisite smoothness required for space-time to be locally flat. Thus the open problem of regularity singularities is the problem as to whether locally inertial coordinate systems exist at shock waves within the larger $C^{1,1}$ atlas. To clarify this open problem, we identify new "Coriolis type" effects in the geometry of $C^{0,1}$ shock wave metrics and prove they are essential in the sense that they can never be made to vanish within the atlas of {\it smooth} coordinate transformations, the atlas usually assumed in classical differential geometry. Thus the problem of existence of regularity singularities is equivalent to the question as to whether or not these Coriolis type effects are essentially non-removable and `real', or merely coordinate effects that can be removed, (in analogy to classical Coriolis forces), by going to the less regular atlas of $C^{1,1}$ transformations. If essentially non-removable, it would argue strongly for a `real' new physical effect for General Relativity, providing a physical context to the open problem of regularity singularities.Comment: 29 pages. Version 2: Corrections of some typographical errors and improvements of wording. Results are unchange

A Non-Perturbative Construction of the Fermionic Projector on Globally Hyperbolic Manifolds II - Space-Times of Infinite Lifetime

The previous functional analytic construction of the fermionic projector on globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifolds is extended to space-times of infinite lifetime. The construction is based on an analysis of families of solutions of the Dirac equation with a varying mass parameter. It makes use of the so-called mass oscillation property which implies that integrating over the mass parameter generates decay of the Dirac wave functions at infinity. We obtain a canonical decomposition of the solution space of the massive Dirac equation into two subspaces, independent of observers or the choice of coordinates. The constructions are illustrated in the examples of ultrastatic space-times and de Sitter space-time.Comment: 29 pages, LaTeX, minor improvements (published version

Strong Cosmic Censorship with Bounded Curvature

In this paper we propose a weaker version of Penrose's much heeded Strong Cosmic Censorship (SCC) conjecture, asserting inextentability of maximal Cauchy developments by manifolds with Lipschitz continuous Lorentzian metrics and Riemann curvature bounded in $L^p$. Lipschitz continuity is the threshold regularity for causal structures, and curvature bounds rule out infinite tidal accelerations, arguing for physical significance of this weaker SCC conjecture. The main result of this paper, under the assumption that no extensions exist with higher connection regularity $W^{1,p}_\text{loc}$, proves in the affirmative this SCC conjecture with bounded curvature for $p$ sufficiently large, ($p>4$ with uniform bounds, $p>2$ without uniform bounds)

Spacetime is Locally Inertial at Points of General Relativistic Shock Wave Interaction between Shocks from Different Characteristic Families

We prove that spacetime is locally inertial at points of shock wave collision in General Relativity. The result applies for collisions between shock waves coming from different characteristic families, in spherically symmetric spacetimes. We give a constructive proof that there exist coordinate transformations which raise the regularity of the gravitational metric tensor from $C^{0,1}$ to $C^{1,1}$ in a neighborhood of such points of shock wave interaction, and a $C^{1,1}$ metric regularity suffices for locally inertial frames to exist. This result corrects an error in our earlier RSPA-publication, which led us to the wrong conclusion that such coordinate transformations, which smooth the metric to $C^{1,1}$, cannot exist. Our result here proves that regularity singularities, (a type of mild singularity introduced in our RSPA-publication), do not exist at points of interacting shock waves from different families in spherically symmetric spacetimes, and this generalizes Israel's famous 1966 result to the case of such shock wave interactions. The strategy of proof here is an extension of the strategy outlined in our RSPA-paper, but differs fundamentally from the method used by Israel. The question whether regularity singularities exist in more complicated shock wave solutions of the Einstein Euler equations still remains open.Comment: 79 pages. The result here corrects the wrong conclusion in arXiv:1105.0798 and arXiv:1112.1803. This paper contains the proofs of the results announced in arXiv:1506.04081. V2: Minor improvements of wording; correction of a minor error in Lemma 8.3. Main results are unchanged. V3: Improvements of wordin

Shock Wave Interactions in General Relativity and the Emergence of Regularity Singularities

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIATese arquivada ao abrigo da Portaria nº 227/2017 de 25 de julho.We show that the regularity of the gravitational metric tensor cannot be lifted from C0;1 to C1;1 by any C1;1 coordinate transformation in a neighborhood of a point of shock wave interaction in General Relativity, without forcing the determinant of the metric tensor to vanish at the point of interaction. This is in contrast to Israel's Theorem [6] which states that such coordinate transformations always exist in a neighborhood of a point on a smooth single shock surface. The results thus imply that points of shock wave interaction represent a new kind of singularity in spacetime, singularities that make perfectly good sense physically, that can form from the evolution of smooth initial data, but at which the spacetime is not locally Minkowskian under any coordinate transformation. In particular, at such singularities, delta function sources in the second derivatives of the gravitational metric tensor exist in all coordinate systems, but due to cancelation, the curvature tensor remains uniformly bounded

On the Optimal Regularity Implied by the Assumptions of Geometry II: Connections on Vector Bundles

We extend authors' prior results on optimal regularity and Uhlenbeck compactness for affine connections to general connections on vector bundles. This is accomplished by deriving a vector bundle version of the RT-equations, and establishing a new existence theory for these equations. These new RT-equations, non-invariant elliptic equations, provide the gauge transformations which transform the fibre component of a non-optimal connection to optimal regularity, i.e., the connection is one derivative more regular than its curvature in $L^p$. The existence theory handles curvature regularity all the way down to, but not including, $L^1$. Taken together with the affine case, our results extend optimal regularity of Kazden-DeTurck and the compactness theorem of Uhlenbeck, applicable to Riemannian geometry and compact gauge groups, to general connections on vector bundles over non-Riemannian manifolds, allowing for both compact and non-compact gauge groups. In particular, this extends optimal regularity and Uhlenbeck compactness to Yang-Mills connections on vector bundles over Lorentzian manifolds as base space, the setting of General Relativity.Comment: Version 4: Improved local and (new) global results; curvature regularity down to L1. Version 3: More details of proof in Section 5. Inclusion of Theorems 2.6 and 2.7. Version 2: New title; improvements to presentation; slightly weaker regularity assumption for the optimal regularity result, and slightly stronger assumption for Uhlenbeck compactness; otherwise results unchange