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Phys. Rev. D 70, 064008 (2004) [13 pages]

Einstein boundary conditions for the Einstein equations in the conformal-traceless decomposition

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Simonetta Frittelli*
Department of Physics, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15282, USA
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA

Roberto Gómez
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA

Received 15 April 2004; published 3 September 2004

In relation to the Baumgarte-Shapiro-Shibata-Nakamura (BSSN) formulation of the Einstein equations, we write down the boundary conditions that result from the vanishing of the projection of the Einstein tensor normally to a timelike hypersurface. Furthermore, by setting up a well-posed system of propagation equations for the constraints, we show explicitly that there are three constraints that are incoming at the boundary surface and that the boundary equations are linearly related to them. This indicates that such boundary conditions play a role in enforcing the propagation of the constraints in the region interior to the boundary. Additionally, we examine the related problem for a strongly-hyperbolic first-order reduction of the BSSN equations and determine the characteristic fields that are prescribed by the three boundary conditions, as well as those that are left arbitrary.

© 2004 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.70.064008
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevD.70.064008
PACS:
04.25.Dm, 04.20.Ex

*Electronic address: simo@mayu.physics.duq.edu

Electronic address: gomez@psc.edu