Vorträge in der Woche 11.05.2020 bis 17.05.2020

Donnerstag, 14.05.2020: The Conformal Method and Non-Vacuum Initial Data Sets

Prof. Dr. David Maxwell (University of Fairbanks)

(joint with Jim Isenberg) The conformal method is a well-studied technique for generating initial data sets in general relativity. Nevertheless, it has intimate connections with the evolution problem, especially the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian perspectives, that are not fully appreciated. In this talk we highlight these connections and show how they give insight on how to “correctly" use the conformal method when matter fields are present. In particular, we show how the Hamiltonian perspective gives a guiding principle to select among ad-hoc constructions used in the past. In addition to giving insight as to why certain approaches have worked well, our technique leads to some novel constructions. For example, for perfect fluids, our approach leads to genuinely new equations.