A new look at the Bondi-Sachs energy-momentum

How does one compute the Bondi mass on an arbitrary cut of null infinity I when it is not presented in a Bondi system? What then is the correct definition of the mass aspect? How does one normalise an asymptotic translation computed on a cut which is not equipped with the unit-sphere metric? These are questions which need to be answered if one wants to calculate the Bondi-Sachs energy-momentum for a space-time which has been determined numerically. Under such conditions there is not much control over the presentation of I so that most of the available formulations of the Bondi energy-momentum simply do not apply. The purpose of this article is to provide the necessary background for a manifestly conformally invariant and gauge independent formulation of the Bondi energy-momentum. To this end we introduce a conformally invariant version of the GHP formalism to rephrase all the well-known formulae. This leads us to natural definitions for the space of asymptotic translations with its Lorentzian metric, for the Bondi news and the mass-aspect. A major role in these developments is played by the “co-curvature”, a naturally appearing quantity closely related to the Gauß curvature on a cut of I.

Null infinity as an open Hamiltonian system

When a system emits gravitational radiation, the Bondi mass decreases. If the Bondi energy is Hamiltonian, it can thus only be a time-dependent Hamiltonian. In this paper, we show that the Bondi energy can be understood as a time-dependent Hamiltonian on the covariant phase space. Our derivation starts from the Hamiltonian formulation in domains with boundaries that are null. We introduce the most general boundary conditions on a generic such null boundary, and compute quasi-local charges for boosts, energy and angular momentum. Initially, these domains are at finite distance, such that there is a natural IR regulator. To remove the IR regulator, we introduce a double null foliation together with an adapted Newman-Penrose null tetrad. Both null directions are surface orthogonal. We study the falloff conditions for such specific null foliations and take the limit to null infinity. At null infinity, we recover the Bondi mass and the usual covariant phase space for the two radiative modes at the full non-perturbative level. Apart from technical results, the framework gives two important physical insights. First of all, it explains the physical significance of the corner term that is added in the Wald-Zoupas framework to render the quasi-conserved charges integrable. The term to be added is simply the derivative of the Hamiltonian with respect to the background fields that drive the time-dependence of the Hamiltonian. Secondly, we propose a new interpretation of the Bondi mass as the thermodynamical free energy of gravitational edge modes at future null infinity. The Bondi mass law is then simply the statement that the free energy always decreases on its way towards thermal equilibrium.

New tensorial estimates in Besov spaces for time-dependent (2 + 1)-dimensional problems

In this paper, we consider various tensorial estimates in geometric Besov-type norms on a one-parameter foliation of surfaces with evolving geometries. Moreover, we wish to accomplish this with only very weak control on these geometries. Several of these estimates were proved in [S. Klainerman and I. Rodnianski, Causal geometry of Einstein-vacuum spacetimes with finite curvature flux, Invent. Math. 159 (2005) 437–529; S. Klainerman and I. Rodnianski, Sharp trace theorems for null hypersurfaces on Einstein metrics with finite curvature flux, Geom. Funct. Anal. 16(3) (2006) 164–229], but in very specific settings. A primary objective of this paper is to significantly simplify and make more robust the proofs of the estimates. Another goal is to generalize these estimates to more abstract settings. In [S. Alexakis and A. Shao, On the geometry of null cones to infinity under curvature flux bounds, Class. Quantum Grav. 31 (2014) 195012], we will apply these estimates in order to consider a variant of the problem in [S. Klainerman and I. Rodnianski, Causal geometry of Einstein-vacuum spacetimes with finite curvature flux, Invent. Math. 159 (2005) 437–529], that of a truncated null cone in an Einstein-vacuum spacetime extending to infinity. This analysis will then be used in [S. Alexakis and A. Shao, Bounds on the Bondi energy by a flux of curvature, to appear in J. Eur. Math. Soc.] to study and to control the Bondi mass and the angular momentum under minimal conditions.