Trilinear compensated compactness and Burnett's conjecture in general relativity

DOI10.24033/ASENS.2577arXiv1907.10743MaRDI QIDQ6322650FDOQ6322650

Cécile Huneau, Jonathan Luk

Publication date: 24 July 2019

Abstract: Consider a sequence of $C^4$ Lorentzian metrics ${h_n}_{n=1}^{+infty}$ on a manifold $mathcalM$ satisfying the Einstein vacuum equation $mathrmRic(h_n)=0$. Suppose there exists a smooth Lorentzian metric $h_0$ on $mathcalM$ such that $h_{n}o{h}_0$ uniformly on compact sets. Assume also that on any compact set $KsubsetmathcalM$, there is a decreasing sequence of positive numbers $lambd{a}_{n}o0$ such that ${\displaystyle }$|partial^{alpha} (h_n - h_0)|_{L^{infty}(K)} lesssim lambda_n^{1-|alpha|},quad |alpha|geq 4.${\displaystyle }$ It is well-known that $h_0$, which represents a "high-frequency limit", is not necessarily a solution to the Einstein vacuum equation. Nevertheless, Burnett conjectured that $h_0$ must be isometric to a solution to the Einstein-massless Vlasov system. In this paper, we prove Burnett's conjecture assuming that ${h_n}_{n=1}^{+infty}$ and $h_0$ in addition admit a $mathbbU(1)$ symmetry and obey an elliptic gauge condition. The proof uses microlocal defect measures - we identify an appropriately defined microlocal defect measure to be the Vlasov measure of the limit spacetime. In order to show that this measure indeed obeys the Vlasov equation, we need some special cancellations which rely on the precise structure of the Einstein equations. These cancellations are related to a new "trilinear compensated compactness" phenomenon for solutions to (semilinear) elliptic and (quasilinear) hyperbolic equations.

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Vlasov equations (35Q83) Global differential geometry of Lorentz manifolds, manifolds with indefinite metrics (53C50) Einstein's equations (general structure, canonical formalism, Cauchy problems) (83C05) Einstein equations (35Q76) Gravitational waves (83C35) Applications of PDEs on manifolds (58J90)

Cited In (2)

• Oscillations in wave map systems and homogenization of the Einstein equations in symmetry
• Well-posedness of anisotropic and homogeneous solutions to the Einstein-Boltzmann system with a conformal gauge singularity

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