[iasmath-seminars] Final Hermann Weyl Lecture today at 2pm

[Anthony Pulido]

INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY
School of Mathematics
Princeton, NJ 08540


****Please note that the final Herman Weyl Lecture will be held today at 
2pm.


Hermann Weyl Lectures
Topic:         On the mathematical theory of black holes III
Speaker:     Sergiu Klainerman, Princeton University
Time/Room:     2:00pm - 3:00pm/S-101
Abstract Link: http://www.math.ias.edu/seminars/abstract?event=132623

On the reality of black holes. I will give a quick introduction to the 
initial value problem in GR and overview of the problems of Rigidity, 
Stability and Collapse and how they fit with regard to the Final State 
Conjecture.

The gravitational waves detected recently by LIGO were produced in the 
final faze of the inward spiraling of two black holes before they 
collided to produce a more massive black hole. The experiment is 
entirely consistent with the so called Final State Conjecture of General 
Relativity according to which, generically, solutions of the initial 
value problem of the Einstein vacuum equations approach asymptotically, 
in any compact region, a Kerr black hole. Though the conjecture is so 
very easy to formulate and happens to be consistent with astrophysical 
observations as well as numerical experiments, its proof is far beyond 
our current mathematical understanding, let alone available techniques 
techniques. In fact even the far simpler and fundamental question of the 
stability of the Kerr black hole remains wide open.

In my lectures I will address the issue of stability as well as other 
aspects the mathematical theory of black holes such as rigidity and the 
problem of collapse. The rigidity conjecture asserts that all stationary 
solutions the Einstein vacuum equations must be Kerr black holes while 
the problem of collapse addresses the issue of how black holes form in 
the first place from regular initial conditions. Recent advances on all 
these problems were made possible by a remarkable combination of new 
geometric and analytic techniques which I will try to outline in my 
lectures.