On a global conformal invariant of initial data sets

Publication date 22 November 1998

Abstract: In the present paper a global conformal invariant

Y

of a closed initial data set is constructed. A spacelike hypersurface

S i g m a

in a Lorentzian spacetime naturally inherits from the spacetime metric a differentiation

{c a l D}_{e}

, the so-called real Sen connection, which turns out to be determined completely by the initial data

h_{a b}

and

c h i_{a b}

induced on

S i g m a

, and coincides, in the case of vanishing second fundamental form

c h i_{a b}

, with the Levi-Civita covariant derivation

D_{e}

of the induced metric

h_{a b}

.

Y

is built from the real Sen connection

{c a l D}_{e}

in the similar way as the standard Chern-Simons invariant is built from

D_{e}

. The number

Y

is invariant with respect to changes of

h_{a b}

and

c h i_{a b}

corresponding to conformal rescalings of the spacetime metric. In contrast the quantity

Y

built from the complex Ashtekar connection is not invariant in this sense. The critical points of our

Y

are precisely the initial data sets which are locally imbeddable into conformal Minkowski space.

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