Strong cosmic censorship in \(T^3\)-Gowdy spacetimes (Q972561)

This paper, a continuation of an earlier one [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 59, No. 7, 977--1041 (2006; Zbl 1114.83010)], deals with the solutions of Einstein's vacuum equations in a space admitting two commuting Killing vectors, with zero twist (Gowdy space-times) and diffeomorphic to \({\mathbb R}\times {\mathbb T}^3\). The problem amounts to a coupled set of nonlinear second-order hyperbolic equations in two variables \((\theta,t)\), with periodic conditions in \(\theta\), and \(t>0\), with an integral constraint (that is automatically satisfied for all \(t\) if it is for some particular value of \(t\)). Making, in particular, repeated use of transformation formulae for solutions of the Gowdy problem, this paper shows that the set of smooth solutions having finitely many true or false spikes is dense in the set of all smooth solutions in the \(C^\infty\) topology. This establishes the generic character of the solutions constructed by \textit{S. Kichenassamy} and \textit{A. D. Rendall} [Classical Quantum Gravity 15, No.5, 1339--1355 (1998; Zbl 0949.83050)] as an application of the method of Reduction [\textit{S. Kichenassamy} and \textit{W. Littman}, Commun. Partial Differ. Equations 18, No.3--4, 431--452 (1993; Zbl 0803.35093) and Commun. Partial Differ. Equations 18, No.~11, 1869--1899 (1993; Zbl 0803.35094)]; for background information, see Kichenassamy's monograph [Fuchsian reduction. Applications to geometry, cosmology and mathematical physics. Basel: Birkhäuser (2007; Zbl 1169.35002)]. A version of the ``cosmic censorship'' conjecture for this class of space-times follows.