No label defined (Q4500459)

The aim of this paper is the construction of a foliation of a past of a spacelike hypersurface with strict positive mean curvature in a cosmological spacetime via the flow by the inverse mean curvature. Namely, let \(M_0\) be a smooth, orientable, compact, spacelike hypersurface without boundary in a cosmological spacetime \({\mathcal{V}}\) with strictly positive mean curvature given by an immersion: \(F_0 : M^n \rightarrow {\mathcal{V}}\). The solution of the evolution equation: \(dF(p,s)/ds= -(1/H) \cdot \nu (p,s)\), \(p \in M^n\), \(s\geq 0\), \(F(p, 0)=F_0(p)\), (where \(\nu (p,s)\) is the future directed unit normal to \(M_s := F(. , s)(M^n)\) and \(H >0\) is the mean curvature on \(M_s\)) gives a foliation as long as the flow stays in a smooth compact region of \({\mathcal{V}}\). Existence of solutions for all time is shown under an assumption on the spacetime which is satisfied in models like Robertson Walker (in particular the Friedman model) or Kasner model.