Examples of cosmological spacetimes without CMC Cauchy surfaces

CMC (constant mean curvature) Cauchy surfaces play an important role in mathematical relativity as finding solutions to the vacuum Einstein constraint equations is made much simpler by assuming CMC initial data. However, Bartnik (Commun Math Phys 117(4):615–624, 1988) constructed a cosmological spacetime without a CMC Cauchy surface whose spatial topology is the connected sum of two three-dimensional tori. Similarly, Chruściel et al. (Commun Math Phys 257(1):29–42, 2005) constructed a vacuum cosmological spacetime without CMC Cauchy surfaces whose spatial topology is also the connected sum of two tori. In this article, we enlarge the known number of spatial topologies for cosmological spacetimes without CMC Cauchy surfaces by generalizing Bartnik’s construction. Specifically, we show that there are cosmological spacetimes without CMC Cauchy surfaces whose spatial topologies are the connected sum of any compact Euclidean or hyperbolic three-manifold with any another compact Euclidean or hyperbolic three-manifold. Analogous examples in higher spacetime dimensions are also possible. We work with the Tolman–Bondi class of metrics and prove gluing results for variable marginal conditions, which allows for smooth gluing of Schwarzschild to FLRW models.