Melanie Graf (Universität Tübingen)

8 April 2022

Regge-Teitelboim conditions (and their relationship with harmonic coordinates)

In General Relativity, an “isolated system at a given instant of time” is modeled as an asymptotically Euclidean initial data set (M,g,K). Such asymptotically Euclidean initial data sets (M,g,K) are characterized by the existence of asymptotic coordinates in which the Riemannian metric g and second fundamental form K decay to the Euclidean metric \delta and to 0 suitably fast, respectively. Using harmonic coordinates Bartnik showed that (under suitable integrability conditions on their matter densities) the (ADM-)energy, (ADM-)linear momentum and (ADM-)mass of an asymptotically Euclidean initial data set are well-defined. To study the (ADM-)angular momentum and (BORT-)center of mass, however, one usually assumes the existence of Regge-Teitelboim coordinates on the initial data set (M,g,K) in question, i.e. the existence of asymptotically Euclidean coordinates satisfying additional decay assumptions on the odd part of g and the even part of K. We will show that, under certain circumstances, harmonic coordinates can be used as a tool in checking whether a given asymptotically Euclidean initial data set possesses Regge-Teitelboim coordinates. This allows us to easily give examples of (vacuum) asymptotically Euclidean initial data sets which do not possess any Regge-Teitelboim coordinates. This is joint work with Carla Cederbaum and Jan Metzger.