Stability of marginally outer trapped surfaces and existence of marginally outer trapped tubes (Q943573)

Marginally outer trapped surfaces (MOTS) and the hypersurfaces in spacetime which they sweep out during time evolution, have become standard as quasilocal replacements of black holes. The propagation of MOTS in spacetime is studied from an analytical point of view and in a general context, i.e. assuming neither symmetries nor the presence of any trapped regions a priori. The main result shows that given a strictly stable MOTS in a spacetime with reference foliation, there is an open marginally outer trapped tube (MOTT), adapted to the reference foliation. Conditions are given under which the MOTT can be completed. Under standard energy conditions on the spacetime, the MOTT must be either locally achronal, spacelike or null.