We prove that there are no exponentially growing modes nor modes on the real axis for the Teukolsky equation on extremal Kerr black hole spacetimes. While the result was previously known for subextremal spacetimes, we show that the proof for the latter cannot be extended to the extremal case as the nature of the event horizon changes radically in the extremal limit.

Finally, we explain how mode stability could serve as a preliminary step towards understanding boundedness, scattering and decay properties of general solutions to the Teukolsky equation on extremal Kerr black holes.

For mathematical convenience initial data sets in numerical relativity are often taken to be conformally flat. Employing the dual-foliation formalism, we investigate the physical consequences of this assumption. Working within a large class of asymptotically flat spacetimes we show that the ADM linear momentum is governed by the leading Lorentz part of a boost even in the presence of supertranslation-like terms. Following up, we find that in spacetimes that are asymptotically flat, and admit spatial slices with vanishing linear momentum that are sufficiently close to conformal flatness, any boosted slice can not be conformally flat. Consequently there are no conformally flat boosted slices of the Schwarzschild spacetime. This confirms the previously anticipated explanation for the presence of junk-radiation in Brandt-Bruegmann puncture data.

It is well-known that considerations of symmetry, based on the construction of suitable Noether charges, lead to the definition of a host of conserved quantities (energy, linear momentum, center of mass, etc.) for an asymptotically flat initial data set and a great deal of progress in Mathematical Relativity in recent decades essentially amounts to establishing fundamental properties for such quantities (space-time positive mass theorems, Penrose inequalities, etc.). In this talk we first review this classical theory and then show how it can be extended to the setting in which the initial data set carries a non-compact boundary. This is based on joint work with S. Almaraz e L. Mari (arXiv:1907.02023).

In cosmology, the universe is typically modelled by spatially homogeneous and isotropic solutions to Einstein’s equations. However, for large classes of matter models, such solutions are unstable in the direction of the singularity. For this reason, it is of interest to study the anisotropic setting.

The purpose of the talk is to describe a framework for studying highly anisotropic singularities. In particular, for analysing the asymptotics of solutions to linear systems of wave equations on the corresponding backgrounds and deducing information concerning the geometry.

The talk will begin with an overview of existing results. This will serve as a background and motivation for the problem considered, but also as a justification for the assumptions defining the framework we develop.

Following this overview, the talk will conclude with a rough description of the results.

We present several rigidity results for initial data sets motivated by the positive mass theorem. An important step in our proofs is to establish conditions that ensure that a marginally outer trapped surface is “weakly outermost”. A rigidity result for Riemannian manifolds with a lower bound on their scalar curvature is included as a special case. Relevant background on marginally outer trapped surfaces will be discussed. This talk is based on joint work with Michael Eichmair and Abraão Mendes.

Gravitational waves are transporting information from faraway regions of the Universe. A new era began with the first detection of gravitational waves by Advanced LIGO in September 2015, and since then several events have been recorded by the LIGO/VIRGO collaboration. New challenges await us to unravel the interesting interplay between physics, astrophysics and mathematics. Most studies so far have been devoted to sources like binary black hole mergers or neutron star mergers, or generally to sources that are stationary outside of a compact set. We describe these systems by asymptotically-flat manifolds solving the Einstein equations. These sources have in common that far away their gravitational field decays fast enough towards Minkowski spacetime. In particular, far away from the source, the decay behavior can be described by a term that is homogeneous of degree -1 and lower order terms. I will present new results on gravitational radiation for sources that are not stationary outside of a compact set, but whose gravitational fields decay more slowly towards infinity. A panorama of new gravitational effects opens up when delving deeper into these more general spacetimes. In particular, whereas the former sources produce memory effects that are of purely electric parity (permanent displacement only), the latter in addition generate memory of magnetic type, thus allowing for rotation in the system. These new effects emerge naturally from the Einstein equations.