Commun. Theor. Phys. (Beijing, China) 50 (2008) pp.

13311335
c Chinese Physical Society Vol. 50, No. 6, December 15, 2008
Exact Solutions for Einsteins Hyperbolic Geometric Flow

HE Chun-Lei

Department of Mathematics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

Department of Mathematics, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, China
(Received March 5, 2008; Revised July 4, 2008)
Abstract In this paper we investigate the Einsteins hyperbolic geometric ow and obtain some interesting exact
solutions for this kind of ow. Many interesting properties of these exact solutions have also been analyzed and we believe
that these properties of Einsteins hyperbolic geometric ow are very helpful to understanding the Einstein equations
and the hyperbolic geometric ow.
PACS numbers: 04.20.Jb
Key words: Einsteins hyperbolic geometric ow, Einstein metric, exact solutions
1 Introduction
The elliptic and parabolic partial dierential equations
have been successfully applied to dierential geometry and
physics.
[1]
Typical examples are Hamiltons Ricci ow and
Schoen-Yaus solution of the positive mass conjecture.
[1,2]
A natural and important question is whether or not we can
apply the well-developed geometry of hyperbolic dieren-
tial equations to solve problems in dierential geometry
and theoretical physics.
Recently, Kong and Liu introduce a new kind of ow
hyperbolic geometric ow,
[3,4]
and point out that the
hyperbolic geometric ow is a very natural tool to under-
stand the wave character of the metrics and wave phe-
nomenon of the curvature. Furthermore, they prove that
it has many surprisingly good properties, which have es-
sential and fundamental dierences from the Einstein eld
equations
[5]
and the Ricci ow.
[4,68]
Kong and Liu
[4]
has also introduced a new kind of ow
the Einsteins hyperbolic geometric ow. For complete-
ness, we rst briey recall some basic notations. Let M
be an n-dimensional complete Riemannian manifold with
Riemannian metric g
ij
, the Levi-Civita connection is given
by the Christoel symbol

k
ij
=
1
2
g
kl
_
g
il
x
j
+
g
jl
x
i

g
ij
x
l
_
,
where g
ij
is the inverse of g
ij
. The Riemannian curvature
tensor reads
R
k
ijl
=

k
jl
x
i

k
il
x
j
+
k
ip

p
jl

k
jp

p
il
,
R
ijkl
= R
p
ijl
g
kp
.
The Ricci tensor is the contraction
R
ik
= g
jl
R
ijkl
,
and the scalar curvature is
R = g
ij
R
ij
.
The hyperbolic geometric ow introduced in Ref. [4] reads

2
g
ij
t
2
= 2R
ij
, (1)
and the Einsteins hyperbolic geometric ow is the evolu-
tion equation

2
g
ij
t
2
= 2R
ij

1
2
g
pq
g
ij
t
g
pq
t
+ g
pq
g
ip
t
g
jq
t
. (2)
Remark 1 Neglecting the lower order terms in Eq. (2)
leads to the hyperbolic geometric ow (1). If we consider
the space-time R M with the Lorentzian metric
ds
2
= dt
2
+ g
ij
(t, x)dx
i
dx
j
, (3)
equation (2) is the vacuum Einstein equations for
Lorentzian metrics g
ij
. In this sense, equation (1) can
be regarded as the resulting equations taking leading terms
of the Einstein equations in the vacuum with respect to the
metric (3).
Obviously the investigation for the Einsteins hyper-
bolic geometric ow is very helpful to the Einstein equa-
tions and the hyperbolic geometric ow.
This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 is devoted
to studying the exact solutions with the Einstein initial
metrics for the Einsteins hyperbolic geometric ow. In
Sec. 3, we investigate the exact solutions with axial sym-
metry, which are more interesting in both physics and
mathematics.
2 Exact Solutions with Einstein Initial
Metrics
This section is devoted to studying the exact solutions
for the Einsteins hyperbolic geometric ow (2) with the
Einstein initial metrics. These exact solutions are use-
ful to understanding the basic features of the Einsteins
hyperbolic geometric ow and the general Einstein equa-
tions.

The project supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 10671124 and the Program for
New Century Excellent Talents in University of China under Grant No. NCET-05-0390

E-mail: hcl@sjtu.edu.cn
1332 HE Chun-Lei Vol. 50
We rst consider the case that the initial metric is Ein-
stein, that is, for some constant it holds
R
ij
(x, 0) = g
ij
(x, 0) , x M .
Let
g
ij
(x, t) = (t)g
ij
(x, 0) .
It follows from the denition of the Ricci tensor that
R
ij
(x, t) = R
ij
(x, 0) = g
ij
(x, 0) ,
and
R(x, t) = n/(t) .
In the present situation, the Einsteins hyperbolic geomet-
ric ow (2) becomes

2
t
2
((t)g
ij
(x, 0)) = 2g
ij
(x, 0)
1
2
g
pq
(x, 0)

t
((t)g
ij
(x, 0))

t
((t)g
pq
(x, 0))
+
1

g
pq
(x, 0)

t
((t)g
ip
(x, 0))

t
((t)g
jq
(x, 0))
= 2g
ij
(x, 0)
1
2
_

t
_
2
g
ij
(x, 0)n +
1

t
_
2
g
ij
(x, 0) .
This gives an ODE of second order

= 2 +
1

)
2
_
1
1
2
n
_
.
In particular, for n = 3, we have

= 2
1
2
(

)
2

. (4)
Obviously, one of the initial conditions for Eq. (4) is
(0) = 1 . (5)
Another one is assumed as

(0) = v , (6)
where v is a real number standing for the initial velocity.
In what follows, we consider the initial problem (4) (6).
Case 1 The initial metric is Ricci at, i.e., = 0.
In this case, equation (4) becomes

=
1
2
(

)
2

. (7)
Letting z = d/dt, we obtain from Eq. (7) that
dz
d
=
1
2
z

. (8)
Thus, the solution of the initial value problem (4) (6)
for = 0 is given by
_
_
_
=
_
3
2
vt + 1
_
2/3
(t 0) , for v > 0 ,
=
_
3
2
vt + 1
_
2/3
_
0 t
2
3v
_
, for v < 0 ,
and
= 1 (t 0) , for v = 0 .
Conclusion 1 For the Ricci at initial metric, if the
initial velocity is zero, then g
ij
(x, t) = g
ij
(x, 0) and the
evolving metric g
ij
is stationary; if the initial velocity is
positive, then the evolving metric g
ij
exists and expands
homothetically for all time and the curvature will fall back
to zero like t
2/3
; if the initial velocity is negative, then
the evolving metric g
ij
shrinks homothetically to a point
in a nite time and the scalar curvature is asymptotic to
innity, this phenomenon corresponds to the black hole
in physics (see Fig. 1).
Fig. 1 The evolving metric expands (if v > 0) or shrinks
(if v < 0) for the case = 0.
Remark 2 From Fig. 1, if the initial velocity is negative
and the initial metric is Ricci at, we notice that the time
t must be smaller than 2/3v. When t > 2/3v, is a
pluralism.
Remark 3 For the Ricci at initial metric, the evolv-
ing metric under the Ricci ow is only stationary. From
this point of view, the Einsteins hyperbolic geometric ow
is essentially dierent from the Ricci ow; for the Ricci
at initial metric, the evolving metric under the hyperbolic
geometric ow is (t) = vt + 1. However, under the Ein-
steins hyperbolic geometric ow, (t) has the same ten-
dency as that of the hyperbolic geometric ow but it is a
concave curve, not a straight line.
Case 2 The initial metric has positive scalar curvature,
i.e., > 0.
First, in this case

= 2
1
2
(

)
2

< 0 ,
i.e., (t) is a concave function.
(i) If the initial velocity v 0, then

(t) <

(0) 0 .
So the evolving metric will shrink homothetically to a
point in a nite time under the Einsteins hyperbolic ge-
ometric ow (see Fig. 2) and the curvature will tend to
innity (black hole).
No. 6 Exact Solutions for Einsteins Hyperbolic Geometric Flow 1333
Fig. 2 The evolving metric shrink (if v 0) or rst
expands then shrinks (if v > 0) for > 0.
(ii) If the initial velocity v > 0, the evolving metric
rst expands then shrinks under the Einsteins hyperbolic
geometric ow (see Fig. 2). In fact, if we assume that

(t) > 0 for all the time, we have

(t) =
2

+ (

)
3

2
> 0
for all the time, i.e.,

(t) is a convex decreasing function

because of

< 0. Moreover, we can obtain

2 >

(t) >

(0) = 2
1
2
v
2
.
Therefore,

(t) will change sign and become negative at

certain nite time, this contradicts to the hypothesis that
(t) is always increasing.
Conclusion 2 If the initial metric has positive scalar
curvature, the evolving metric shrinks (if v 0) or rst
expands then shrinks (if v > 0) under the Einstein hyper-
bolic geometric ow. The scalar curvature tends to inn-
ity. This phenomenon corresponds to the black hole in
physics.
Case 3 The initial metric has a negative scalar curva-
ture, i.e., < 0.
Letting z =

(t), we obtain from Eq. (4) that

dz
d
=
1
2
z

2
z
. (9)
Since
d(z
2
)
d
= 2z
dz
d
+ z
2
= 2
_

1
2
z
2
2
_
+ z
2
= 4 ,
from Eqs. (5) and (6), we have
z
2
= 2 +
v
2
+ 2

. (10)
Case 3(i) v
2
+ 2 = 0.
In this case, the solution of the initial value problem
(4) (6) for < 0 is given by
=
_

2
2
t + 1
_
2
t > 0 , (v > 0) ,
or
=
_

2
2
t + 1
_
2
0 < t <
2

2
, (v < 0) .
(See Fig. 3).
Fig. 3 The evolving metric expands (if v > 0) or shrinks
(if v < 0) for v
2
+ 2 = 0, < 0.
Case 3(ii) v
2
+ 2 > 0.
From Eq. (10), we have
z
2
= 2 +
v
2
+ 2

2
_
(2)(v
2
+ 2) > 0 .
(a) The initial velocity v > 0, then

(t) > 0 for all the

time.
In this case, the function

(t) is a increasing function

and

(t) >

(0) = (v
2
+ 4)/2 because of

(t) =
2

+ (

)
3

2
=
(v
2
+ 2)

3
> 0 .
In this case, by Eq. (10) we have
z =
d
dt
=

2 +
v
2
+ 2

,
t as .
In fact,
t =
_

1
1
_
2 + (v
2
+ 2)/
d

_

1
1
_
2 + v
2
+ 2
d
=
2

2
_
_
+
v
2
+ 2
2

_
1 +
v
2
+ 2
2
_
.
So the evolving metric expands homothetically for all the
time and the curvature falls back to zero (see Fig. 4).
Fig. 4 The evolving metric expands (if v > 0) for
v
2
+ 2 > 0.
(b) The initial velocity v < 0, then

(t) < 0 for all

time.
In this case, the evolving metric shrinks to a point in a
nite time and the curvature tends to innity (see Fig. 5).
1334 HE Chun-Lei Vol. 50
Fig. 5 The evolving metric shrinks (if v < 0) for
v
2
+ 2 > 0.
In fact,

(t) is a decreasing and concave function be-

cause of

(t) =
(v
2
+ 2)

3
< 0 ,
and

(4)
(t) =
v
2
+ 2

4
10
2
7(v
2
+ 2)
2
< 0 .
Then there exists a nite time t
0
such that

(t
0
) = 0 if

(0) > 0. If

(0) 0 then

(t) < 0 for all time t > 0.

Case 3(iii) v
2
+ 2 < 0.
Noting
z
2
= 2 +
v
2
+ 2

0 ,
we have

v
2
+ 2
2
> 0 .
And from

(t) = 2
z
2
2
=
v
2
+ 2
2
2
> 0 ,
we obtain that (t) is a convex function and

(t) > v.
By Eq. (10), we have
t =
_

1
1
_
2 + (v
2
+ 2)/
d
_

1
1

2
d
=
2

2
(

1) as .
Fig. 6 The evolving metric expands for v
2
+ 2 < 0.
In this case, the evolving metric expands homotheti-
cally for all time (v 0) or rst shrinks then expands
homothetically for all time (v < 0). The scalar curvature
falls back to zero (see Fig. 6).
Conclusion 3 If the initial metric has a negative scalar
curvature, then: (i) when v
2
+2 0, the evolving metric
expands (v > 0) or shrinks to a point (v < 0) and the
scalar curvature falls back to zero (v > 0) or tends to in-
nity (v < 0); (ii) when v
2
+ 2 < 0, the evolving metric
expands homothetically for all time (v 0) or shrinks rst
then expands for all time (v < 0) and the scalar curvature
falls back to zero.
Remark 4 The exact solutions with the Einstein initial
metric under the Einsteins hyperbolic geometric ow has
richer properties than that under the hyperbolic geometric
ow, in particular, see the second graphs of Figs. 1 and
3, there is a nite time t
0
such that this ow can not ow
down when t > t
0
, although they have the same tendency.
Remark 5 A typical example of the Einstein metric is
ds
2
=
1
1 kr
2
dr
2
+ r
2
d
2
+ r
2
sin
2
d
2
,
where k is a constant taking its value 1, 0 and 1. We
can prove that
ds
2
= (t)
_
1
1 kr
2
dr
2
+ r
2
d
2
+ r
2
sin
2
d
2
_
(11)
is a solution of the Einstein hyperbolic geometric ow (2),
where (t) satises the following ODE:

= 4k
1
2
(

)
2
.
The above ODE is the same as Eq. (4), where = 2k.
The metric (11) plays an important role in cosmology.
3 Exact Solutions with Axial Symmetry
More interesting examples are the exact solutions with
axial symmetry. In this section, we are interested in the
exact solutions with the following form for the Einsteins
hyperbolic geometric ow (2),
ds
2
= f(t, z)dz
2
+
h(t)
g(t, z)
__
dx (t, z)dy
_
2
+ g
2
(t, z)dy
2

, (12)
f, h, and g are smooth functions with respect to vari-
ables. The x-invariance and y-invariance show that the
model possesses the z-axial symmetry. In order to guar-
antee that the metric g
ij
is Riemannian, we assume
f(t, z) > 0 and
h(t)
g(t, z)
> 0 .
By a direct calculation, we obtain the Ricci curvature
corresponding to the metric (12)
R
11
=
h
4f
2
g
3
_
2f(g
2
z

2
z
) 2fgg
zz
+ gf
z
g
z

,
R
12
=
h
4f
2
g
3
_
2f(g
2
z

2
z
) + 4fg
z
g
z
+ 2fgg
zz
2fg
2

zz
gf
z
g
z
+ g
2

z
f
z

,
No. 6 Exact Solutions for Einsteins Hyperbolic Geometric Flow 1335
R
22
=
h
4f
2
g
3
_
2f(
2
g
2
)(g
2
z

2
z
) + 4fg
2

zz
2fg(
2
g
2
)g
zz
8fg
z
g
z
2g
2
f
z

z
+ (
2
g
2
)gf
z
g
z

,
R
33
=
1
2g
2
(
2
z
+ g
2
z
) . (13)
We obtain from Eq. (2) that
2fh
_
h
tt
g
2
ghg
tt
gh
t
g
t
+ hg
2
t
h
2
t

+ hg(gh
t
hg
t
)f
t
=
h
2
f
_
2f(g
2
z

2
z
) 2fgg
zz
+ gf
z
g
z

, (14)
2fh
_
ghg
tt
g
2
h
tt
g
2
h
tt
hg
2
t
+ h
2
t
+ 2gh
t
g
t
+ gh
t
g
t
g
2
h
t

+ gh
_
hg
t
gh
t
gh
t

f
t
=
h
2
f
_
2f(g
2
z

2
z
) + 4fg
z
g
z
+ 2fgg
zz
2fg
2

zz
gf
z
g
z
+ g
2

z
f
z

, (15)
2fh
_
g
2
(
2
+ g
2
)h
tt
gh(
2
g
2
)g
tt
+ 2hg
2

tt
h(
2
g
2
)(
2
t
g
2
t
) + 2g
2
h
t

t
4gh
t
g
t
g(
2
g
2
)h
t
g
t

+ hg
_
g(
2
+ g
2
)h
t
+ 2gh
t
h(
2
g
2
)g
t

f
t
=
h
2
f
_
2f(
2
g
2
)(g
2
z

2
z
) + 4fg
2

zz
2fg(
2
g
2
)g
zz
8fg
z
g
z
2g
2
f
z

z
+ ( u
2
g
2
)gf
z
g
z

, (16)
f
tt
2hf + 2fh
t
f
t
hf
2
t
=
2hf
g
2
(
2
z
+ g
2
z
) . (17)
Multiplying Eq. (14) by
2
+g
2
, Eq. (15) by 2 then sum-
ming these two resulting equations and Eq. (16) leads to
2fh
tt
+ h
t
f
t
= 0 . (18)
Consider the linear expanding of the rotating, i.e., h(t) =
t. In this case, we obtain from Eq. (18) that f
t
= 0, which
implies that f = f(z) is independent of t. Therefore,
equation (17) reduces to
2
z
+ g
2
z
= 0, that is = (t),
g = g(t). In these cases, the Ricci curvature R
ij
equals to
zero. And from Eqs. (14) (16) we have
gtg
tt
+ gg
t
tg
2
t
+ t
2
t
= 0 , (19)
gt
tt
2t
t
g
t
+ g
t
= 0 . (20)
By Eq. (20) we get
t
t
=

cg
2
, (21)
where c is an arbitrary positive constant. Substituting
Eq. (21) into Eq. (19) leads to
g
tt
+
g
t
t

g
2
t
g
+
cg
3
t
2
= 0 . (22)
The solution of Eq. (22) reads
g(t) =
a
b
1
t
d
+ b
2
t
d
, (23)
where a, b
1
, b
2
, and d are positive constants and satisfy
a
2
c = 4b
1
b
2
d
2
.
Then we have
(t) =
_
t
1

ca
2
t(b
1
t
d
+ b
2
t
d
)
2
dt + (1) . (24)
Hence, the desired solution with the axial symmetry of
the Einsteins hyperbolic geometric ow reads
ds
2
= f(z)dz
2
+
t
g(t)
__
dx(t)dy
_
2
+g
2
(t)dy
2

, (25)
where g(t) and (t) satisfy Eqs. (23) and (24), and f(z) is
a positive function. The Ricci curvature R
ij
equals zero
for all time under the metric (25).
Remark 6 From the form of the metric (12) and (22),
the time must begin at a positive time because, when t = 0,
the metric is not Riemmannian.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank the Center of Mathe-
matical Sciences at Zhejiang University for the great sup-
port and hospitality and the referee for pertinent com-
ments and valuable suggestions.
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