Covariant definition of Double Null Data and geometric uniqueness of the characteristic initial value problem

TL;DR

This paper generalizes the covariant formulation of double null data for Einstein's equations and proves a geometric uniqueness property for the characteristic initial value problem, ensuring consistent spacetime embeddings.

Contribution

It introduces a fully covariant definition of double null data and establishes geometric uniqueness for the characteristic initial value problem in general relativity.

Findings

Covariant formulation of double null data established.

No extra conditions needed for embedding data into spacetime.

Proved geometric uniqueness of the characteristic initial value problem.

Abstract

The characteristic Cauchy problem of the Einstein field equations has been recently addressed from a completely abstract viewpoint by means of hypersurface data and, in particular, via the notion of double null data. However, this definition was given in a partially gauge-fixed form. In this paper we generalize the notion of double null data in a fully diffeomorphism and gauge covariant way, and show that the definition is complete by proving that no extra conditions are needed to embed the double null data in some spacetime. The second aim of the paper is to show that the characteristic Cauchy problem satisfies a geometric uniqueness property. Specifically, we introduce a natural notion of isometry at the abstract level such that two double null data that are isometric in this sense give rise to isometric spacetimes.