Prof. Juan A. Valiente Kroon (School of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London): Studying black holes by means of geometric invariants

Friday 10 Jun 2011, 14:00 → 15:00 Europe/Budapest

Tanácsterm (RMKI KFKI III. ép.)

The Kerr spacetime is, arguably, one of the most important exact solutions to the vacuum Einstein field equations. It describes a rotating stationary black hole, and it is expected to describe, in some sense, the final stage of the evolution of a dynamical black hole spacetime. The Kerr spacetime is characterised by the existence of a so-called Killing spinor with a very particular asymptotic behaviour at infinity. In this talk I will discuss an ongoing research programme (carried out in collaboration with T. Bäckdahl) to construct geometric invariants which allow to establish in a precise and rigorous manner what it means that a dynamical black hole is close to a member of the Kerr family. The connection between these invariants and some fundamental problems in the mathematical theory of black holes will be explored during the talk.