Gravitation Instantons of Constant Curvature
by
John G. Ratcliffe
Vanderbilt University
Coauthors: Steven T. Tschantz

A gravitational instanton is a compact orientable Riemannian 4-manifold with a totally geodesic boundary that satisfies Einstein's equations. Gravitational instantons are used in the theory of quantum gravity to model the creation of the universe. The simplest gravitational instantons are those of constant curvature. The standard example of a gravitation instanton is the northern hemisphere of a round 4-sphere. In this talk, the classification of all the flat gravitational instantons will be discussed and an example of a hyperbolic gravitational instanton will be described. Gravitational instantons are important in cosmology because the boundary of a gravitational instanton gives a possible shape for the spatial geometry of our universe.

Date received: April 22, 1998

Copyright © 1998 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Mathematical Conference Abstracts. Document # cabb-35.