Hans Ringström (KTH Stockholm, Sweden)

Quiescent big bang singularities

Thursday, 16 April 2026, 16:00-17:00 in HG00.304

Abstract

Since Hawking proved his singularity theorem, it is clear that singularities of big bang type typically occur in cosmological solutions to Einstein’s equations. Moreover, due to the work of Belinskii, Khalatnikov and Lifschitz (BKL), there is a proposal concerning the nature of these singularities. For many matter models, solutions are expected to exhibit chaotic dynamics governed by the so-called BKL map, but for some matter models, the dynamics are expected to be convergent/quiescent. The purpose of the talk is to discuss quiescent singularities, with an emphasis on a geometric notion of initial data on the singularity. In particular, we present a general condition on initial data ensuring big bang formation, curvature blow up and solutions that induce data on the singularity.