The energetic instability of spherically symmetric self-gravitating fluids and scalar fields

In this talk I will present some results regarding the energetic stability of general relativistic self-gravitating perfect fluids, as well as scalar fields. To this avail variational formulations of the two systems in terms of energy functionals are introduced. Within these the stationary points with respect to the variations are characterised by the appropriate versions of Einstein’s equations. The central results are non-existence theorems for non-trivial global minima of the corresponding functionals. Furthermore I will briefly comment on an approach to arrive at a similar result for a quantum version of the scalar field, its drawbacks and possibilities to tackle the occurring problems in a physically sound manner.

Advisor: Prof. Bergfinnur Durhuus, Math, University of Copenhagen

Assessment committee:

Prof. Matthias Christandl  (chairman), MATH, University of Copenhagen

Prof. Christian Hainzl , Universität Tübingen, Germany

Prof. Jacob Schach Møller, Aarhus University, Denmark