The Initial Boundary Value Problem in General Relativity: The Umbilic Case

Abstract

Abstract We give a short proof of local well-posedness for the initial boundary value problem in general relativity with sole boundary condition the requirement that the boundary is umbilic. This includes as a special case the totally geodesic boundary condition that we had previously addressed in [ 8]. The proof is based on wave coordinates and the key observation that the momentum constraint is always valid for umbilic boundaries. This allows for a greater freedom in the choice of boundary conditions, since imposing the umbilic condition also provides Neumann boundary conditions for three of the four wave coordinates conditions. Moreover, the umbilic condition, being geometric, implies that geometric uniqueness in the sense of Friedrich holds in this specific case.