The Goursat Problem for the Einstein-Vlasov System: (I) The Initial Data Constraints

Abstract: We show how to assign, on two intersecting null hypersurfaces, initial data for the Einstein-Vlasov system in harmonic coordinates. As all the components of the metric appear in each component of the stress-energy tensor, the hierarchical method of Rendall can not apply strictly speaking. To overcome this difficulty, an additional assumption have been imposed to the metric on the initial hypersurfaces. Consequently, the distribution function is constrained to satisfy some integral equations on the initial hypersurfaces.