Motivated by the study of small
amplitude nonlinear waves in the anti-de
Sitter spacetime and in particular the
conjectured existence of periodic in time
solutions to the Einstein equations,
we construct families of arbitrary
small time-periodic solutions to the
conformal cubic wave equation and
the spherically symmetric Yang–Mills
equations on the Einstein cylinder
.
For the conformal cubic wave
equation, we consider both spherically
symmetric solutions and complex-valued
aspherical solutions with an ansatz
relying on the Hopf fibration of the
-sphere.
In all three cases, the equations
reduce to
+
semilinear wave equations.
Our proof relies on a theorem of Bambusi–Paleari for which the main assumption is the
existence of a seed solution, given by a nondegenerate zero of a nonlinear operator associated
with the resonant system. For the problems that we consider, such seed solutions are simply
given by the mode solutions of the linearized equations. Provided that the Fourier coefficients
of the systems can be computed, the nondegeneracy conditions then amount to solving
infinite dimensional linear systems. Since the eigenfunctions for all three cases studied are
given by Jacobi polynomials, we derive the different Fourier and resonant systems using
linearization and connection formulas as well as integral transformation of Jacobi polynomials.
In the Yang–Mills case, the original version of the theorem of Bambusi–Paleari is
not applicable because the nonlinearity of smallest degree is nonresonant. The resonant
terms are then provided by the next order nonlinear terms with an extra correction
due to backreaction terms of the smallest degree of nonlinearity, and we prove an
analogous theorem in this setting.