On the structure of conformally compact Einstein metrics

Let M be an (n + 1)-dimensional manifold with non-empty boundary, satisfying π1(M, ∂M) = 0. The main result of this paper is that the space of conformally compact Einstein metrics on M is a smooth, infinite dimensional Banach manifold, provided it is non-empty. We also prove full boundary regularity for such metrics in dimension 4 and a local existence and uniqueness theorem for such metrics with prescribed metric and stress–energy tensor at conformal infinity, again in dimension 4. This result also holds for Lorentzian–Einstein metrics with a positive cosmological constant.