On the initial boundary value problem for the vacuum Einstein equations and geometric uniqueness

Abstract

We formulate an initial boundary value problem (IBVP) for the vacuum Einstein equations by describing the boundary conditions of a spacetime metric in its associated gauge. This gauge is determined, equivariantly with respect to diffeomorphisms, by the spacetime metric. The vacuum spacetime metric $g$ and its associated gauge $\phi_g$ are solved simultaneously in local harmonic coordinates. Further we show that vacuum spacetimes satisfying fixed initial-boundary conditions and corner conditions are geometrically unique near the initial surface. Finally, in analogy to the solution of the Cauchy problem, we also construct a unique maximal globally hyperbolic solution of the IBVP.