The future asymptotics of Bianchi VIII vacuum solutions

Bianchi VIII vacuum solutions to Einstein's equations are causally geodesically complete to the future, given an appropriate time orientation, and the objective of this article is to analyze the asymptotic behaviour of solutions in this time direction. For the Bianchi class A spacetimes, there is a formulation of the field equations that was presented in an article by Wainwright and Hsu, and we analyze the asymptotic behaviour of solutions in these variables. We also try to give the analytic results a geometric interpretation by analyzing how a normalized version of the Riemannian metric on the spatial hypersurfaces of homogeneity evolves.Comment: 34 pages, no figure

Strong cosmic censorship in the case of T3-Gowdy vacuum spacetimes

In 1952, Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat demonstrated that it makes sense to consider Einstein's vacuum equations from an initial value point of view; given initial data, there is a globally hyperbolic development. Since there are many developments, one does, however, not obtain uniqueness. This was remedied in 1969 when Choquet-Bruhat and Robert Geroch demonstrated that there is a unique maximal globally hyperbolic development (MGHD). Unfortunately, there are examples of initial data for which the MGHD is extendible, and, what is worse, extendible in inequivalent ways. Thus it is not possible to predict what spacetime one is in simply by looking at initial data and, in this sense, Einstein's equations are not deterministic. Since the examples exhibiting this behaviour are rather special, it is natural to conjecture that for generic initial data, the MGHD is inextendible. This conjecture is referred to as the strong cosmic censorship conjecture and is of central importance in mathematical relativity. In this paper, we shall describe this conjecture in detail, as well as its resolution in the special case of T3-Gowdy spacetimes

The future asymptotics of Bianchi VIII vacuum solutions

Bianchi VIII vacuum solutions to Einstein's equations are causally geodesically complete to the future, given an appropriate time orientation, and the objective of this paper is to analyse the asymptotic behaviour of solutions in this time direction. For the Bianchi class A spacetimes, there is a formulation of the field equations that was presented in an article by Wainwright and Hsu, and we will analyse the asymptotic behaviour of solutions in these variables. We also try to give the analytic results a geometric interpretation by analysing how a normalized version of the Riemannian metric on the spatial hypersurfaces of homogeneity evolve

Future asymptotic expansions of Bianchi VIII vacuum metrics

Bianchi VIII vacuum solutions to Einstein’s equations are causally geodesically complete to the future, given an appropriate time orientation, and the objective of this article is to analyze the asymptotic behaviour of solutions in this time direction. For the Bianchi class A spacetimes, there is a formulation of the field equations that was presented in an article by Wainwright and Hsu, and in a previous article we analyzed the asymptotic behaviour of solutions in these variables. One objective of this paper is to give an asymptotic expansion for the metric. Furthermore, we relate this expansion to the topology of the compactified spatial hypersurfaces of homogeneity. The compactified spatial hypersurfaces have the topology of Seifert fibred spaces and we prove that in the case of NUT Bianchi VIII spacetimes, the length of a circle fibre converges to a positive constant but that in the case of general Bianchi VIII solutions, the length tends to infinity at a rate we determine. Finally, we give asymptotic expansions for general Bianchi VII0 metrics

Data at the moment of infinite expansion for polarized Gowdy

In a recent paper by Thomas Jurke, it was proved that the asymptotic behaviour of a solution to the polarized Gowdy equation in the expanding direction is of the form αln t + β + t-1/2ν + O(t-3/2), where α and β are constants and ν is a solution to the standard wave equation with zero mean value. Furthermore, it was proved that α, β and ν uniquely determine the solution. Here we wish to point out that given α, β and ν with the above properties, one can construct a solution to the polarized Gowdy equation with the above asymptotics. In other words, we show that α, β and ν constitute data at the moment of infinite expansion. We then use this fact to make the observation that there are polarized Gowdy spacetimes such that in the areal time coordinate, the quotient of the maximum and the minimum of the mean curvature on a constant time hypersurface is unbounded as time tends to infinity

The Bianchi IX attractor

We consider the asymptotic behaviour of spatially homogeneous spacetimes of Bianchi type IX close to the singularity (we also consider some of the other Bianchi types, e. g. Bianchi VIII in the stiff fluid case). The matter content is assumed to be an orthogonal perfect fluid with linear equation of state and zero cosmological constant. In terms of the variables of Wainwright and Hsu, we have the following results. In the stiff fluid case, the solution converges to a point for all the Bianchi class A types. For the other matter models we consider, the Bianchi IX solutions generically converge to an attractor consisting of the closure of the vacuum type II orbits. Furthermore, we observe that for all the Bianchi class A spacetimes, except those of vacuum Taub type, a curvature invariant is unbounded in the incomplete directions of inextendible causal geodesics

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

Future asymptotic expansions of Bianchi VIII vacuum metrics

Bianchi VIII vacuum solutions to Einstein's equations are causally geodesically complete to the future, given an appropriate time orientation, and the objective of this article is to analyze the asymptotic behaviour of solutions in this time direction. For the Bianchi class A spacetimes, there is a formulation of the field equations that was presented in an article by Wainwright and Hsu, and in a previous article we analyzed the asymptotic behaviour of solutions in these variables. One objective of this paper is to give an asymptotic expansion for the metric. Furthermore, we relate this expansion to the topology of the compactified spatial hypersurfaces of homogeneity. The compactified spatial hypersurfaces have the topology of Seifert fibred spaces and we prove that in the case of NUT Bianchi VIII spacetimes, the length of a circle fibre converges to a positive constant but that in the case of general Bianchi VIII solutions, the length tends to infinity at a rate we determine.Comment: 50 pages, no figures. Erronous definition of Seifert fibred spaces correcte

Cauchy horizons in Gowdy space times

We analyse exhaustively the structure of \emph{non-degenerate} Cauchy horizons in Gowdy space-times, and we establish existence of a large class of non-polarized Gowdy space-times with such horizons. Added in proof: Our results here, together with deep new results of H. Ringstr\"om (talk at the Miami Waves conference, January 2004), establish strong cosmic censorship in (toroidal) Gowdy space-times.Comment: 25 pages Latex. Further information at http://grtensor.org/gowdy