general relativity

Formation of Trapped Surfaces from Spacelike Initial Data

arXiv:2607.11236

summary

The paper constructs specific short‑pulse spacelike initial data for Einstein’s equations and shows how these data can be extended to asymptotically flat Cauchy data, leading to the formation of trapped surfaces.

Abstract

We make use of the free data formalism developed in \cite{CK25,CK26} to provide a direct construction of short-pulse type Cauchy data. The construction of the spacelike short-pulse follows from the local existence result established in \cite{CK26}. The forward integration construction in \cite{CK26} allows us to show that such data can be extended to a set of asymptotically flat Cauchy data. This greatly extends the result of Li--Yu \cite{LiYu}.

Topics & keywords

Formation of Trapped Surfaces from Spacelike Initial Data · wovepaper