Quasilinear reformulation of Lovelock gravity

Abstract

Here we give an extended review of the quasilinear reformulation of the Lovelock gravitational field equations in harmonic gauge presented in 1409.6656 [gr-qc]. This is important in order to establish rigorously well-posedness of the theory perturbed about certain backgrounds. The resulting system is not quasidiagonal, therefore analysis of causality is complicated in general. The conditions for the equations to be Leray hyperbolic are elucidated. The relevance to some recent results regarding the stability analysis of black holes is presented.

V2: some uncertain claims regarding solutions close to Minkowski space have been removed. 6 pages. This article is to appear in the proceedings of the VII Black Holes Workshop, Dec. 18-19 2014. It is an expanded account of results previously announced in 1409.6656 [gr-qc]