Einstein metrics, their moduli spaces and stability

Abstract

This survey deals with two closely connected topics: first, the stability of Einstein metrics under the Einstein-Hilbert functional, and second, their deformation theory and the study of the moduli space of Einstein metrics on a compact manifold. To first order, both problems reduce to studying the spectrum and eigentensors of the Lichnerowicz Laplacian. We give an introduction to the classical theory and survey recent results and advances.