Asymptotically simple spacetime manifolds

Abstract

Asymptotic simplicity is shown to be k‐stable (k≥3) at any Minkowski metric on R4 in both the Whitney fine Ck topology and a coarser topology (in which the Ck twice‐convariant symmetric tensors form a Banach manifold whose connected components consist of tensor field asymptotic to one another at null infinity). This result, together with a sequential method for solving the field equations previously proposed by the authors, allows a fairly straightforward proof that a well‐known result in the linearized theory holds in the full nonlinear theory as well: There are no nontrivial (i.e., non‐Minkowskian) asymptotically simple vacuum metrics on R4 whose conformal curvature tensors result from prescribing zero initial data on past null infinity.