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Lydia Bieri

Publications and source records attributed to Lydia Bieri.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat 1923-2025

This is a memorial article for Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat, who was one of the great pioneers of mathematical general relativity and of partial differential equations. Starting with her 1952 result on local existence of solutions of the vacuum Einstein field equations, she obtained many results on the Einstein evolution equations, the Einstein constraint equations, and the equations of supergravity. Her methods have also been important for numerical relativity. She also wrote several textbooks and a memoir. An abridged version of this article has been submitted to AMS Notices.

gr-qc

Asymptotically Euclidean Solutions of the Constraint Equations with Prescribed Asymptotics

We demonstrate that in constructing asymptotically flat vacuum initial data sets in General Relativity via the conformal method, certain asymptotic structures may be prescribed a priori through the specified seed data, including the ADM momentum components, the leading- and next-to-leading-order decay rates, and the anisotropy in the metric's mass term, yielding a recipe to construct initial data sets with desired asymptotics. We numerically construct a simple explicit example of an initial data set, with stronger asymptotics than have been obtained in previous work, such that the evolution of this initial data set does not exhibit the conjectured antipodal symmetry between future and past null infinity.

gr-qc

Stochastic Limit of Growing Gravitational Wave Memory from Sources in the Early Universe and Astrophysical Sources

We show that the stochastic background of gravitational wave memory of growing type leads to a fractional Brownian motion increasing at the order of $t^{H}$ for large $t$ where $\frac{1}{2} < H <1$. This beats the scaling law of Brownian motion. In this article we investigate sources of gravitational waves in the early universe as well as in astrophysical settings. Cosmological sources may include primordial black holes or other sources immediately after the Big Bang when there were pockets of hot material, and large density fluctuations. Gravitational waves from mergers of primordial black holes produce memory. We show that due to the conditions in which these are taking place the gravitational wave memory will be increasing in time following a certain power law. Corresponding results hold for any gravitational wave memory from a cosmological source where the surrounding conditions are similar. The stochastic limit of these memories is a stochastic process growing in time faster than the $\sqrt{t}$ scaling law of Brownian motion. The latter is also typical for noise and for the limit of memory events as they have been mostly considered in the literature. In an expanding universe, the memory is enhanced by the expansion itself. Our results provide a tool to extract gravitational wave sources of this type from data using this memory signature. This would be particularly useful for the PTA data that has been already observed, answering the long-standing question on how to extract memory signals from the data. Further, the new results open up a new door to explore the conditions right after the Big Bang using the long-range dependence and further probability analysis.

gr-qc

Brill Waves with Slow Fall-Off Towards Spatial Infinity

We compute families of solutions to the Einstein vacuum equations of the type of Brill waves, but with slow fall-off towards spatial infinity. We prove existence and uniqueness of solutions for physical data and numerically construct some representative solutions. We numerically construct an explicit example with slow-off which does not exhibit antipodal symmetry at spatial infinity.

gr-qc

Gravitational Wave Displacement and Velocity Memory Effects

In this article, we compare in detail the linear and nonlinear approach to the Gravitational Waves Displacement and Velocity Memory (GWDM and GWVM) effects. We consider astrophysical situations that give rise to gravitational waves with GWVM effect, i.e. with a residual velocity (the so-called "velocity-coded memory") and discuss the possibility of future detection of the GWVM effect.

gr-qc

An experiment to measure electromagnetic memory

We describe an experiment to measure the electromagnetic analog of gravitational wave memory, the so-called electromagnetic memory. Whereas gravitational wave memory is a residual displacement of test masses, electromagnetic memory is a residual velocity (i.e. kick) of test charges. The source of gravitational wave memory is energy that is not confined to any bounded spatial region: in the case of binary black hole mergers the emitted energy of gravitational radiation as well as the recoil energy of the final black hole. Similarly, electromagnetic memory requires a source whose charges are not confined to any bounded spatial region. While particle beams can provide unbounded charges, their currents are too small to be practical for such an experiment. Instead we propose a short microwave pulse applied to the center of a long dipole antenna. In this way the measurement of the kick can be done quickly enough that the finite size of the antenna does not come into play and it acts for our purposes the same as if it were an infinite antenna.

gr-qc

Radiation and Asymptotics for Spacetimes with Non-Isotropic Mass

We derive new results on radiation, angular momentum at future null infinity and peeling for a general class of spacetimes. For asymptotically-flat solutions of the Einstein vacuum equations with a term homogeneous of degree $-1$ in the initial data metric, that is it may include a non-isotropic mass term, we prove new detailed behavior of the radiation field and curvature components at future null infinity. In particular, the limit along the null hypersurface $C_u$ as $t \to \infty$ of the curvature component $\rho = \frac{1}{4} R_{3434}$ multiplied with $r^3$ tends to a function $P(u, \theta, \phi)$ on $\mathbb{R} \times S^2$. When taking the limit $u \to + \infty$ (which corresponds to the limit at spacelike infinity), this function tends to a function $P^+ (\theta, \phi)$ on $S^2$. We prove that the latter limit does not have any $l=1$ modes. However, it has all the other modes, $l=0, l \geq 2$. Important derivatives of crucial curvature components do not decay in $u$, which is a special feature of these more general spacetimes. We show that peeling of the Weyl curvature components at future null infinity stops at the order $r^{-3}$, that is $r^{-4} |u|^{+1}$, for large data, and at order $r^{- \frac{7}{2}}$ for small data. Despite this fact, we prove that angular momentum at future null infinity is well defined for these spacetimes, due to the good behavior of the $l=1$ modes involved.

gr-qc

New Structures in Gravitational Radiation

We investigate the Einstein vacuum equations as well as the Einstein-null fluid equations describing neutrino radiation. We find new structures in gravitational waves and memory for asymptotically-flat spacetimes of slow decay. These structures do not arise in spacetimes resulting from data that is stationary outside a compact set. Rather the more general situations exhibit richer geometric-analytic interactions displaying the physics of these more general systems. It has been known that for stronger decay of the data gravitational wave memory is finite and of electric parity only. We investigate general spacetimes that are asymptotically flat in a rough sense, where the decay of the data to Minkowski space towards infinity is very slow. Main new feature: We prove that there exists diverging magnetic memory sourced by the magnetic part of the curvature tensor (a) in the Einstein vacuum and (b) in the Einstein-null-fluid equations. The magnetic memory occurs naturally in the Einstein vacuum setting (a) of pure gravity. In case (b), in the ultimate class of solutions, the magnetic memory also contains a curl term from the energy-momentum tensor for neutrinos also diverging at the highest rate. The electric memory diverges too, it is generated by the electric part of the curvature tensor and in the Einstein-null-fluid situation also by the corresponding energy-momentum component. In addition, we find a panorama of finer structures in these manifolds. Some of these manifest themselves as additional contributions to both electric and magnetic memory. Our theorems hold for any type of matter or energy coupled to the Einstein equations as long as the data decays slowly towards infinity and other conditions are satisfied. The new results have many applications ranging from mathematical general relativity to gravitational wave astrophysics, detecting dark matter and other topics in physics.

gr-qc

New Effects in Gravitational Waves and Memory

We find new effects for gravitational waves and memory in asymptotically-flat spacetimes of slow decay. In particular, we derive growing magnetic memory for these general systems. These effects do not arise in spacetimes resulting from data with fast decay towards infinity, including data that is stationary outside a compact set. The new results are derived for the Einstein vacuum as well as for the Einstein-fluid equations describing neutrino radiation, where the neutrino distribution falls off slowly towards infinity. Moreover, they hold for other matter and energy fields coupled to the Einstein equations as long as the data obey corresponding decay laws and other conditions are fulfilled. The magnetic memory occurs naturally in the Einstein vacuum regime of pure gravitation, and in the Einstein-matter systems satisfying the aforementioned conditions. As a main new effect, we find that there is diverging magnetic memory sourced by the magnetic part of the curvature. In the most extreme case, the magnetic memory, in addition, features a curl term from the neutrino cloud, growing at the same rate. Electric memory is diverging as well, sourced by the electric part of the curvature tensor and the corresponding energy-momentum component. Shear (news) adds to the electric memory. Moreover, a multitude of lower order terms contribute to both electric and magnetic memory. Further, we identify a range of decay rates for asymptotically-flat spacetimes for which the new effects occur but with different leading order behavior. The new effects are expected to be seen in current and future gravitational wave detectors. They have an abundance of applications of which we mention a few in this paper. Applications include exploring gravitational wave sources of the above types, detecting dark matter via gravitational waves and other areas of physics.

gr-qc

A No-Boundary Method for Numerical Relativity

We propose a method for numerical relativity in which the spatial grid is finite and no outer boundary condition is needed. As a "proof of concept" we implement this method for the case of a self-gravitating, spherically symmetric scalar field.

gr-qc

Hair loss in parity violating gravity

The recent detection of gravitational waves by the LIGO/VIRGO collaboration has allowed for the first tests of Einstein's theory in the extreme gravity regime, where the gravitational interaction is simultaneously strong, non-linear and dynamical. One such test concerns the rate at which the binaries inspiral, or equivalently the rate at which the gravitational wave frequency increases, which can constrain the existence of hairy black holes. This is because black holes with scalar hair typically excite dipole radiation, which in turn leads to a faster decay rate and frequency chirping. In this paper, we present a mathematical proof that scalar hair is not sourced in vacuum, spherically symmetric spacetimes when considering extensions of Einstein's theory that break parity in gravity, focusing on dynamical Chern-Simons theory as a particular toy model. This result implies that the observational confirmation of the baldness of black holes cannot be used to constrain parity violation in gravity, unless the black holes observed are also spinning.

gr-qc

Answering the Parity Question for Gravitational Wave Memory

Memory of gravitational waves in asymptotically-flat spacetimes that are solutions of the Einstein vacuum equations is of purely electric parity, no magnetic parity memory can occur. We show this by investigating what happens for various classes of asymptotically-flat Einstein-vacuum-spacetimes. This is understood within such spacetimes that have been shown to be stable in the fully nonlinear regime under perturbations away from Minkwoski space. We also lay open the structures at the transition from spacetimes that have a well-defined memory to those for which the memory formula cannot be retrieved due to their specific asymptotic behavior and the divergence of crucial integrals. Moreover, for the Einstein equations coupled to other fields with a common stress-energy as well as in the cosmological setting, we find that gravitational memory is of electric parity only.

gr-qc

Gravitational Waves and Their Mathematics

This is an overview article of the mathematics of gravitational waves. We explain the mathematics and physics of these waves in general relativity theory, discuss the gravitational wave experiment aLIGO and their detection of gravitational waves as well as its implications for astrophysics. A version of this article was published in the AMS Notices, Vol. 64, Issue 07, 2017, (August issue 2017).

gr-qc

Gravitational wave memory in $\Lambda$CDM cosmology

We examine gravitational wave memory in the case where sources and detector are in a $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. We consider the case where the universe can be highly inhomogeneous, but the gravitatational radiation is treated in the short wavelength approximation. We find results very similar to those of gravitational wave memory in an asymptotically flat spacetime; however, the overall magnitude of the memory effect is enhanced by a redshift-dependent factor. In addition, we find the memory can be affected by lensing.

gr-qc

From physical assumptions to classical and quantum Hamiltonian and Lagrangian particle mechanics

The aim of this work is to show that particle mechanics, both classical and quantum, Hamiltonian and Lagrangian, can be derived from few simple physical assumptions. Assuming deterministic and reversible time evolution will give us a dynamical system whose set of states forms a topological space and whose law of evolution is a self-homeomorphism. Assuming the system is infinitesimally reducible---specifying the state and the dynamics of the whole system is equivalent to giving the state and the dynamics of its infinitesimal parts---will give us a classical Hamiltonian system. Assuming the system is irreducible---specifying the state and the dynamics of the whole system tells us nothing about the state and the dynamics of its substructure---will give us a quantum Hamiltonian system. Assuming kinematic equivalence, that studying trajectories is equivalent to studying state evolution, will give us Lagrangian mechanics and limit the form of the Hamiltonian/Lagrangian to the one with scalar and vector potential forces.

physics.class-ph

Future-complete null hypersurfaces, interior gluings, and the Trautman-Bondi mass

We present the argument that the past limit of the Trautman-Bondi mass is the ADM mass under weak hypotheses on the decay of the metric towards spatial infinity, without any smallness conditions on the initial data, assuming well defined energy, momentum, center of mass and angular moment. Part of the proof consists of a careful inspection of the proof of stability of Minkowski space-time, which is sketched. This is complemented by an interior gluing result for asymptotically flat initial data with well defined Poincar\'e charges, which is proved in detail.

gr-qc

On the Motion of a Self-Gravitating Incompressible Fluid with Free Boundary and Constant Vorticity: An Appendix

In a recent work [1] the authors studied the dynamics of the interface separating a vacuum from an inviscid incompressible fluid, subject to the self-gravitational force and neglecting surface tension, in two space dimensions. The fluid is additionally assumed to be irrotational, and we proved that for data which are size $\epsilon$ perturbations of an equilibrium state, the lifespan $T$ of solutions satisfies $T \gtrsim \epsilon^{-2}$. The key to the proof is to find a nonlinear transformation of the unknown function and a coordinate change, such that the equation for the new unknown in the new coordinate system has no quadratic nonlinear terms. For the related irrotational gravity water wave equation with constant gravity the analogous transformation was carried out by the last author in [3]. While our approach is inspired by the last author's work [3], the self-gravity in the present problem is a new nonlinearity which needs separate investigation. Upon completing [1] we learned of the work of Ifrim and Tataru [2] where the gravity water wave equation with constant gravity and constant vorticity is studied and a similar estimate on the lifespan of the solution is obtained. In this short note we demonstrate that our transformations in [1] can be easily modified to allow for nonzero constant vorticity, and a similar energy method as in [1] gives an estimate $T\gtrsim\epsilon^{-2}$ for the lifespan $T$ of solutions with data which are size $\epsilon$ perturbations of the equilibrium. In particular, the effect of the constant vorticity is an extra linear term with constant coefficient in the transformed equation, which can be further transformed away by a bounded linear transformation. This note serves as an appendix to the aforementioned work of the authors.

math.AP

On the Motion of a Self-Gravitating Incompressible Fluid with Free Boundary

We consider the motion of the interface separating a vacuum from an inviscid, incompressible, and irrotational fluid, subject to the self-gravitational force and neglecting surface tension, in two space dimensions. The fluid motion is described by the Euler-Poission system in moving bounded simply connected domains. A family of equilibrium solutions of the system are the perfect balls moving at constant velocity. We show that for smooth data which are small perturbations of size $\epsilon$ of these static states, measured in appropriate Sobolev spaces, the solution exists and remains of size $\epsilon$ on a time interval of length at least $c\epsilon^{-2},$ where $c$ is a constant independent of $\epsilon.$ This should be compared with the lifespan $O(\epsilon^{-1})$ provided by local well-posdness. The key ingredient of our proof is finding a nonlinear transformation which removes quadratic terms from the nonlinearity. An important difference with the related gravity water waves problem is that unlike the constant gravity for water waves, the self-gravity in the Euler-Poisson system is nonlinear. As a first step in our analysis we also show that the Taylor sign condition always holds and establish local well-posedness for this system.

math.AP