Geometry and Topology Seminar

The study of static vacuum Riemannian metrics arises naturally in general relativity and differential geometry. A static vacuum metric produces a static spacetime by a warped product, and it is related to scalar curvature deformation and gluing. The well-known Uniqueness Theorem of Static Black Holes says that an asymptotically flat, static vacuum metric with black hole boundary must belong to the Schwarzschild family. In contrast to the rigidity phenomenon, R. Bartnik conjectured that there are asymptotically flat, static vacuum metric realizing certain arbitrarily specified boundary data. I will discuss recent progress toward this conjecture. It is based on joint work with Zhongshan An.