On the geometry of silent and anisotropic big bang singularities

TL;DR

This paper develops a geometric framework for analyzing silent and anisotropic big bang singularities in Einstein's equations, providing insights into their asymptotic geometry without symmetry assumptions and reproducing the Kasner map.

Contribution

It introduces a symmetry-free geometric framework that captures the asymptotic behavior of big bang singularities and reproduces key conjectured dynamics like the Kasner map.

Findings

The framework describes the asymptotic geometry of big bang singularities.

It reproduces the Kasner map from physics literature.

Exponential decay and convergence of key geometric quantities are demonstrated.

Abstract

This article is the second of two in which we develop a geometric framework for analysing silent and anisotropic big bang singularities. In the present article, we record geometric conclusions obtained by combining the geometric framework with Einstein's equations. The main features of the results are the following: The assumptions do not involve any symmetry requirements and are weak enough to be consistent with most big bang singularities for which the asymptotic geometry is understood. The framework gives a clear picture of the asymptotic geometry. It also reproduces the Kasner map, conjectured in the physics literature to constitute the essence of the asymptotic dynamics for vacuum solutions to Einstein's equations. When combined with Einstein's equations, the framework yields partial improvements of the assumptions concerning, e.g., the expansion normalised Weingarten map $\mathcal{K}$ (one of the central objects of the framework, defined as the Weingarten map of the leaves of the foliation divided by the mean curvature). For example, the expansion normalised normal derivative of $\mathcal{K}$ can, under suitable assumptions concerning the eigenvalues of $\mathcal{K}$, be demonstrated to decay exponentially and $\mathcal{K}$ can be demonstrated to converge exponentially, even though we initially only impose weighted bounds on these quantities. Finally, the framework gives a unified perspective on the existing results. Moreover, in $3+1$-dimensions, the only parameters necessary to interpret the results are the eigenvalues of $\mathcal{K}$ and an additional scalar function determined by the geometry induced on the leaves of the foliation. In the companion article, we obtain conclusions concerning the asymptotic behaviour of solutions to linear systems of wave equations on the backgrounds consistent with the framework.