Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2014 / iii / Paper 50 / 3 / d

On the punctured region $r>0$, choose a positive constant $a$ and setFor a radial function in three dimensions, $\Delta \psi =r^{-2}{\partial }_r(r^2{\partial }_r\psi )$. Since $r^2{\partial }_r\psi =-a$, this harmonic function has $\Delta \psi =0$ at every $r>0$, is nonconstant and positive, and approaches one at infinity. It defines the requested time-symmetric conformally flat vacuum initial data on that punctured or exterior region. One often writes $a=M/2$, giving the time-symmetric spatial metric of the Schwarzschild metric in isotropic coordinates.

A puncture or inner boundary is necessary if global regularity was intended. A smooth harmonic function on all of ${\mathbb{R}}^3$ that tends to one at infinity must equal one everywhere: applying the maximum principle for harmonic functions to larger and larger balls bounds $|\psi -1|$ by its arbitrarily small boundary values. The nonconstant example is therefore not a smooth solution through $r=0$, and no such globally regular example exists under those stronger assumptions.