Points of general relativistic shock wave interaction are `regularity singularities' where space-time is not locally flat

DOI10.1098/RSPA.2011.0360MaRDI QIDQ5362028zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Moritz Reintjes, Blake Temple

Publication date 29 September 2017

Published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1105.0798

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Propagation of singularities; initial value problems on manifolds (58J47) Space-time singularities, cosmic censorship, etc. (83C75)

Abstract: We show that the regularity of the gravitational metric tensor in spherically symmetric spacetimes cannot be lifted from $C^{0,1}$ to $C^{1,1}$ within the class of $C^{1,1}$ coordinate transformations in a neighborhood of a point of shock wave interaction in General Relativity, without forcing the determinant of the metric tensor to vanish at the point of interaction. This is in contrast to Israel's Theorem which states that such coordinate transformations always exist in a neighborhood of a point on a smooth single shock surface. The results thus imply that points of shock wave interaction represent a new kind of singularity for perfect fluids evolving in spacetime, singularities that make perfectly good sense physically, that can form from the evolution of smooth initial data, but at which the spacetime is not locally Minkowskian under any coordinate transformation. In particular, at such singularities, delta function sources in the second derivatives of the gravitational metric tensor exist in all coordinate systems of the $C^{1,1}$ atlas, but due to cancelation, the curvature tensor remains uniformly bounded.

Recommendations

• No regularity singularities exist at points of general relativistic shock wave interaction between shocks from different characteristic families
• Spacetime is locally inertial at points of general relativistic shock wave interaction between shocks from different characteristic families
• Retraction: Points of general relativistic shock wave interaction are `regularity singularities' where space-time is not locally flat
• ``Regularity singularities and the scattering of gravity waves in approximate locally inertial frames
• Shock wave interactions and the Riemann-flat condition: the geometry behind metric smoothing and the existence of locally inertial frames in general relativity

Cited in

(7)

• Spacetime is locally inertial at points of general relativistic shock wave interaction between shocks from different characteristic families
• Shock wave interactions and the Riemann-flat condition: the geometry behind metric smoothing and the existence of locally inertial frames in general relativity
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 7232769 (Why is no real title available?)
• ``Regularity singularities and the scattering of gravity waves in approximate locally inertial frames
• How to smooth a crinkled map of space-time: Uhlenbeck compactness for \(L^\infty\) connections and optimal regularity for general relativistic shock waves by the Reintjes-Temple equations
• Retraction: Points of general relativistic shock wave interaction are `regularity singularities' where space-time is not locally flat
• No regularity singularities exist at points of general relativistic shock wave interaction between shocks from different characteristic families

This page was built for publication: Points of general relativistic shock wave interaction are `regularity singularities' where space-time is not locally flat

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q5362028)