We present a new approach to the gluing problem in General Relativity, that is, the problem of matching two solutions of the Einstein equations along a spacelike or characteristic (null) hypersurface.
In contrast to previous constructions, the new perspective actively utilizes the nonlinearity of the constraint equations. As a result, we are able to remove the 10-dimensional spaces of obstructions to gluing present in the literature. As application, we show that any asymptotically flat spacelike initial data set can be glued to Schwarzschild initial data of sufficiently large mass. This is joint work with I. Rodnianski.
