Gravitational geons in asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetimes

Abstract

We report on numerical constructions of fully non-linear geons in asymptotically anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetimes in four dimensions. Our approach is based on 3 + 1 formalism and spectral methods in a gauge combining maximal slicing and spatial harmonic coordinates. We are able to construct several families of geons seeded by different families of spherical harmonics. We can reach unprecedentedly high amplitudes, with mass of order ∼1/2 of the AdS length, and with deviations of the order of 50% compared to third order perturbative approaches. The consistency of our results with numerical resolution is carefully checked and we give extensive precision monitoring techniques. All global quantities, such as mass and angular momentum, are computed using two independent frameworks that agree with each other at the 0.1% level. We also provide strong evidence for the existence of ‘excited’ (i.e. with one radial node) geon solutions of Einstein equations in asymptotically AdS spacetimes by constructing them numerically.