An approach to stability analyses in general relativity via symplectic geometry

We begin with a review of the statements of non-linear, linear and mode stability of autonomous dynamical systems in classical mechanics, using symplectic geometry. We then discuss what the Arnowitt–Deser–Misner (ADM) phase space and the ADM Hamiltonian of general relativity are, what constitutes a dynamical system, and subsequently present a nascent attempt to draw a formal analogy between the notions of stability in these two theories. We wish to note that we have not discussed here the construction of the reduced phase space by forming the quotient space of the constrained phase space with the gauge orbits. Our approach here is pedagogical and geometric, and the motivation is to unify and simplify a formal understanding of the statements regarding the stability of stationary solutions of general relativity. That is, typically the governing equations of motion of a Hamiltonian dynamical system are simply the flow equations of the associated symplectic Hamiltonian vector field, defined on phase space, and the non-linear stability analysis of its critical points have simply to do with the divergence of its flow there. Further, the linear stability of a critical point is related to the properties of the tangent flow of the Hamiltonian vector field. In the second half of this work, we posit that a study of the genericity of a particular black hole or naked singularity spacetime forming as an endstate of gravitational collapse is equivalent to an inquiry of how sensitive the orbits of the symplectic Hamiltonian vector field of general relativity are to changes in initial data. We demonstrate this by conducting a restricted non-linear stability analysis of the formation of a Schwarzschild black hole, working in the usual initial value formulation of general relativity.