Asymptotic properties of linear field equations in anti-De Sitter space (Q2304967)

Anti-de Sitter space-time (AdS) is a maximally-symmetric solution of the vacuum Einstein equations with a negative cosmological constant. A key feature of AdS is that null infinity is a time-like boundary. As a result, it is necessary to impose boundary conditions on any perturbations of AdS, leading to an initial/boundary value problem. The nature of the boundary conditions has profound consequences for the global behaviour of such perturbations. For example, there is strong evidence that AdS is nonlinearly unstable when reflecting boundary conditions are applied (so that the flux through the boundary vanishes). In contrast, it is conjectured that AdS is (asymptotically) stable if the boundary conditions are optimally dissipative, in other words, the flux through the boundary is as large as possible. This article constitutes a first step towards a proof of the above conjecture. The authors consider conformal scalar, electromagnetic and gravitational perturbations of global AdS, and prove decay estimates for these linear problems which are required for any subsequent stability proof. First, it is proven that the optimally dissipative boundary conditions lead to a well-posed initial/boundary value problem in each case. The main theorems can then be proven. These involve three estimates on an energy density associated to each field, namely: a uniform boundedness result; a degenerate (near infinity) integrated decay without derivative loss; and a non-degenerate (near infinity) integrated decay with derivative loss. The derivative loss in the third estimate is necessary in the sense that a counter-example can be found if it is absent. As might be anticipated, proving the main theorems is most involved in the case of gravitational perturbations.