Mihalis Dafermos

A proof of Price’s law for the collapse of a self-gravitating scalar field

A well-known open problem in general relativity, dating back to 1972, has been to prove Price’s law for an appropriate model of gravitational collapse. This law postulates inverse-power decay rates for the gravitational radiation flux through the event horizon and null infinity with respect to appropriately normalized advanced and retarded time coordinates. It is intimately related both to astrophysical observations of black holes and to the fate of observers who dare cross the event horizon. In this paper, we prove a well-defined (upper bound) formulation of Price’s law for the collapse of a self-gravitating scalar field with spherically symmetric initial data. We also allow the presence of an additional gravitationally coupled Maxwell field. Our results are obtained by a new mathematical technique for understanding the long-time behavior of large data solutions to the resulting coupled non-linear hyperbolic system of p.d.e.’s in 2 independent variables. The technique is based on the interaction of the conformal geometry, the celebrated red-shift effect, and local energy conservation; we feel it may be relevant for the problem of non-linear stability of the Kerr solution. When combined with previous work of the first author concerning the internal structure of charged black holes, which had assumed the validity of Price’s law, our results can be applied to the strong cosmic censorship conjecture for the Einstein-Maxwell-real scalar field system with complete spacelike asymptotically flat spherically symmetric initial data. Under Christodoulou’s C0-formulation, the conjecture is proven to be false.

THE BLACK HOLE STABILITY PROBLEM FOR LINEAR SCALAR PERTURBATIONS

We review our recent work on linear stability for scalar perturba- tions of Kerr spacetimes, that is to say, boundedness and decay properties for solutions of the scalar wave equation 2g = 0 on Kerr exterior backgrounds (M,ga,M). We begin with the very slowly rotating caseSaS ≪M, where first boundedness and then decay has been shown in rapid developments over the last two years, following earlier progress in the Schwarzschild case a= 0. We then turn to the general subextremal range SaS <M, where we give here for the first time the essential elements of a proof of definitive decay bounds for solutions . These developments give hope that the problem of the non-linear stability of the Kerr family of black holes might soon be addressed. This paper accompanies a talk by one of the authors (I.R.) at the 12th Marcel Grossmann Meeting, Paris, June 2009.

A NEW PHYSICAL-SPACE APPROACH TO DECAY FOR THE WAVE EQUATION WITH APPLICATIONS TO BLACK HOLE SPACETIMES

We review our recent work on linear stability for scalar perturbations of Kerr spacetimes, that is to say, boundedness and decay properties for solutions of the scalar wave equation 2gψ = 0 on Kerr exterior backgrounds (M, ga,M ). We begin with the very slowly rotating case ∣a∣ ≪M , where first boundedness and then decay has been shown in rapid developments over the last two years, following earlier progress in the Schwarzschild case a = 0. We then turn to the general subextremal range ∣a∣ < M , where we give here for the first time the essential elements of a proof of definitive decay bounds for solutions ψ. These developments give hope that the problem of the non-linear stability of the Kerr family of black holes might soon be addressed. This paper accompanies a talk by one of the authors (I.R.) at the 12th Marcel Grossmann Meeting, Paris, June 2009.We present a new general method for proving global decay of energy through a suitable spacetime foliation, as well as pointwise decay, starting from an integrated local energy decay estimate. The method is quite robust, requiring only physical space techniques, and circumvents use of multipliers or commutators with weights growing in t. In particular, the method applies to a wide class of perturbations of Minkowski space as well as to Schwarzschild and Kerr black hole exteriors.

Spherically symmetric spacetimes with a trapped surface

This paper investigates the global properties of a class of spherically symmetric spacetimes. The class contains the maximal development of asymptotically flat (or hyperboloidal) spherically symmetric initial data for a wide variety of coupled Einstein-matter systems. For this class, it is proven here that the existence of a single trapped or marginally trapped surface implies the future completeness of future null infinity and the formation of an event horizon whose area radius is bounded by twice the final Bondi mass.

Black Holes Without Spacelike Singularities

It is shown that for small, spherically symmetric perturbations of asymptotically flat two-ended Reissner–Nordström data for the Einstein–Maxwell-real scalar field system, the boundary of the dynamic spacetime which evolves is globally represented by a bifurcate null hypersurface across which the metric extends continuously. Under additional assumptions, it is shown that the Hawking mass blows up identically along this bifurcate null hypersurface, and thus the metric cannot be extended twice differentiably; in fact, it cannot be extended in a weaker sense characterized at the level of the Christoffel symbols. The proof combines estimates obtained in previous work with an elementary Cauchy stability argument. There are no restrictions on the size of the support of the scalar field, and the result applies to both the future and past boundary of spacetime. In particular, it follows that for an open set in the moduli space of solutions around Reissner–Nordström, there is no spacelike component of either the future or the past singularity.

An Extension Principle for the Einstein-Vlasov System in Spherical Symmetry

Abstract.We prove that “first singularities” in the non-trapped region of the maximal development of spherically symmetric asymptotically flat data for the Einstein-Vlasov system must necessarily emanate from the center. The notion of “first” depends only on the causal structure and can be described in the language of terminal indecomposable pasts (TIPs). This result suggests a local approach to proving weak cosmic censorship for this system. It can also be used to give the first proof of the formation of black holes by the collapse of collisionless matter from regular initial configurations.Communicated by Sergiu Klainerman

On ``Time-Periodic'' Black-Hole Solutions to Certain Spherically Symmetric Einstein-Matter Systems

AbstractThis paper explores black hole solutions of various Einstein-wave matter systems admitting a time-orientation preserving isometry of their domain of outer communications taking some point to its future. In the first two parts, it is shown that such solutions, assuming in addition that they are spherically symmetric and the matter has a certain structure, must be Schwarzschild or Reissner-Nordström. Non-trivial examples of matter for which the result applies are a wave map and a massive charged scalar field interacting with an electromagnetic field. The results thus generalize work of Bekenstein [1] and Heusler [13] from the static to the periodic case. In the third part, which is independent of the first two, it is shown that Dirac fields preserved by an isometry of a spherically symmetric domain of outer communications of the type described above must vanish. It can be applied in particular to the Einstein-Dirac-Maxwell equations or the Einstein-Dirac-Yang/Mills equations, generalizing work of Finster, Smoller and Yau [10, 8, 9 and also 7].

Inextendibility of expanding cosmological models with symmetry

A new criterion for inextendibility of expanding cosmological models with symmetry is presented. It is applied to derive a number of new results and to simplify the proofs of existing ones. In particular, it shows that the solutions of the Einstein–Vlasov system with T2 symmetry, including the vacuum solutions, are inextendible in the future. The technique introduced adds a qualitatively new element to the available tool-kit for studying strong cosmic censorship.

Time-Translation Invariance of Scattering Maps and Blue-Shift Instabilities on Kerr Black Hole Spacetimes

In this paper, we provide an elementary, unified treatment of two distinct blue-shift instabilities for the scalar wave equation on a fixed Kerr black hole background: the celebrated blue-shift at the Cauchy horizon (familiar from the strong cosmic censorship conjecture) and the time-reversed red-shift at the event horizon (relevant in classical scattering theory). Our first theorem concerns the latter and constructs solutions to the wave equation on Kerr spacetimes such that the radiation field along the future event horizon vanishes and the radiation field along future null infinity decays at an arbitrarily fast polynomial rate, yet, the local energy of the solution is infinite near any point on the future event horizon. Our second theorem constructs solutions to the wave equation on rotating Kerr spacetimes such that the radiation field along the past event horizon (extended into the black hole) vanishes and the radiation field along past null infinity decays at an arbitrarily fast polynomial rate, yet, the local energy of the solution is infinite near any point on the Cauchy horizon. The results make essential use of the scattering theory developed in Dafermos, Rodnianski and Shlapentokh-Rothman (A scattering theory for the wave equation on Kerr black hole exteriors (2014). arXiv:1412.8379) and exploit directly the time-translation invariance of the scattering map and the non-triviality of the transmission map.

Black Hole Formation from a Complete Regular Past

An open problem in general relativity has been to construct an asymptotically flat solution to a reasonable Einstein-matter system containing a black hole and yet causally geodesically complete to the past, containing no white holes. We construct such a solution in this paper–in fact a family of such solutions, stable in a suitable sense–where matter is described by a self-gravitating scalar field.