Mathematical problems of general relativity. I. (Q2469681)

This book is based on lectures read by its author at Eidgenossische Hochschule Zürich in 2003. Its title is not very precise, because it contains mainly a lot of material about the vacuum solutions of the Einstein field equation in the asymptotically flat case; only at some places, also an electromagnetic field and a scalar field are added as sources. And within this class of topics, the main emphasis, see chapter 4, is on the global stability of Minkowski spacetime. The introduction is quite short, in principle the reader is assumed to know already the main parts of general relativity. In chapter 2, the Cauchy problem for the Einstein field equation is presented, and in chapter 3, several variants of asymptotic flatness are introduced, conserved quantities, and the Noether theorem are presented, too. The stability result is not completely proved, but the main ideas are given which include conformal transformations, Bianchi identities, and minimal surfaces. The book ends with a short reference list and an index.