Shock wave interactions and the Riemann-flat condition: the geometry behind metric smoothing and the existence of locally inertial frames in general relativity

DOI10.1007/S00205-019-01456-8zbMATH Open1434.53081arXiv1610.02390OpenAlexW3101614104WikidataQ127072800 ScholiaQ127072800MaRDI QIDQ2297686FDOQ2297686

Moritz Reintjes, Blake Temple

Publication date: 20 February 2020

Published in: Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We prove that the essential smoothness of the gravitational metric at shock waves in GR, a PDE regularity issue for weak solutions of the Einstein equations, is determined by a geometrical condition which we introduce and name the {it Riemann-flat condition}. The Riemann-flat condition determines whether or not the essential smoothness of the gravitational metric is two full derivatives more regular than the Riemann curvature tensor. This provides a geometric framework for the open problem as to whether {it regularity singularities} (points where the curvature is in $L^{i}nfty$ but the essential smoothness of the gravitational metric is only Lipschitz continuous) can be created by shock wave interaction in GR, or whether metrics Lipschitz at shocks can always be smoothed one level to $C^{1,1}$ by coordinate transformation. As a corollary of the ideas we give a proof that locally inertial frames always exist in a natural sense for shock wave metrics in spherically symmetric spacetimes, independent of whether the metric itself can be smoothed to $C^{1,1}$ locally. This latter result yields an explicit procedure (analogous to Riemann Normal Coordinates in smooth spacetimes) for constructing locally inertial coordinates for Lipschitz metrics, and is a new regularity result for GR solutions constructed by the Glimm scheme.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.02390

Recommendations

• Spacetime is locally inertial at points of general relativistic shock wave interaction between shocks from different characteristic families
• ``Regularity singularities and the scattering of gravity waves in approximate locally inertial frames
• No regularity singularities exist at points of general relativistic shock wave interaction between shocks from different characteristic families
• Points of general relativistic shock wave interaction are `regularity singularities' where space-time is not locally flat
• Optimal metric regularity in general relativity follows from the RT-equations by elliptic regularity theory in \(L^p\)-spaces

zbMATH Keywords

essential smoothnessregularity singularitiesgravitational metricRiemann-flat conditionshock wave metrics

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Special Riemannian manifolds (Einstein, Sasakian, etc.) (53C25) Applications of global differential geometry to the sciences (53C80) Einstein's equations (general structure, canonical formalism, Cauchy problems) (83C05) Macroscopic interaction of the gravitational field with matter (hydrodynamics, etc.) (83C55) Einstein equations (35Q76)

Cites Work

• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time
• Hyperbolic systems of conservation laws II
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• The imbedding problem for Riemannian manifolds
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• The bounded \(L^2\) curvature conjecture
• Shock-wave solutions of the Einstein equations with perfect fluid sources: existence and consistency by a locally inertial Glimm scheme
• The Glimm scheme for perfect fluids on plane-symmetric Gowdy spacetimes
• ``Regularity singularities and the scattering of gravity waves in approximate locally inertial frames
• Regularity for Lorentz metrics under curvature bounds
• Local foliations and optimal regularity of Einstein spacetimes
• No regularity singularities exist at points of general relativistic shock wave interaction between shocks from different characteristic families
• The Hawking-Penrose singularity theorem for \(C^{1,1}\)-Lorentzian metrics
• Shock-wave solutions of the Einstein equations: The Oppenheimer-Snyder model of gravitational collapse extended to the case of non-zero pressure
• Spacetime is locally inertial at points of general relativistic shock wave interaction between shocks from different characteristic families
• Optimal metric regularity in general relativity follows from the RT-equations by elliptic regularity theory in \(L^p\)-spaces
• The regularity transformation equations: an elliptic mechanism for smoothing gravitational metrics in general relativity
• How to smooth a crinkled map of space–time: Uhlenbeck compactness for L ^∞ connections and optimal regularity for general relativistic shock waves by the Reintjes–Temple equations

Cited In (5)

• Strong cosmic censorship with bounded curvature
• Mini-workshop: Relativistic fluids at the intersection of mathematics and physics. Abstracts from the mini-workshop held December 13--19, 2020 (online meeting)
• On the optimal regularity implied by the assumptions of geometry. I: Connections on tangent bundles
• How to smooth a crinkled map of space–time: Uhlenbeck compactness for L ^∞ connections and optimal regularity for general relativistic shock waves by the Reintjes–Temple equations
• On weak solutions to the geodesic equation in the presence of curvature bounds

This page was built for publication: Shock wave interactions and the Riemann-flat condition: the geometry behind metric smoothing and the existence of locally inertial frames in general relativity

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q2297686)