On the dynamics of Einstein's equations in the Ashtekar formulation

Abstract

We study the dynamics of Einstein's equations in Ashtekar's variables from the point of view of the theory of hyperbolic systems of evolution equations. We extend previous results and show that by a suitable modification of the Hamiltonian vector flow outside the sub-manifold of real and constrained solutions, a symmetric hyperbolic system is obtained for any fixed choice of lapse-shift pair, without assuming the solution to be a priori real. We notice that the evolution system is block diagonal in the pair $(σ^a,A_b)$, and provide explicit and very simple formulae for the eigenvector-eigenvalue pairs in terms of an orthonormal tetrad with one of its components pointing along the propagation direction. We also analyze the constraint equations and find that when viewed as functions of the extended phase space they form a symmetric hyperbolic system on their own. We also provide simple formulae for its eigenvectors-eigenvalues pairs.