Gravitational fields near space-like and null infinity (Q1377231): Difference between revisions

The author pursues a program to study Einstein's equations systematically by means of conformal methods. The present, voluminous paper continues [\textit{H. Friedrich}, J. Geom. Phys. 17, 125-184 (1995; Zbl 0840.53055)] and other articles. Conformal compactification defines ``infinity'' as the boundary of an extended spacetime. The aim is here to control the evolution of the gravitational field near spacelike and null infinity, which is interpreted as an initial value problem. Already simple examples -- Minkowski and Schwarzschild spacetimes -- demonstrate typical difficulties. In particular, the solution generically exhibits a logarithmic singularity near infinity. The author succeeds to reformulate the conformal field equations near infinity such that the data and the equations are regular, the geometry of infinity is known a priori, and the evolution equations form a symmetric hyperbolic system. Several tools are used and reformulated for the purposes of the paper: conformal geodesics, space spinors, representation theory of the group \(\text{SU}(2,\mathbb{C})\), series expansions based on the latter, Hadamard's construction of an elementary solution, and more. For the sake of simplicity, real analytic data and time symmetry are assumed, i.e., the second fundamental form vanishes.