The new formulation of the causal completion of spacetimes suggested in [1], and modified later in [2], is tested by computing the causal boundary for product spacetimes of a Lorentz interval and a Riemannian manifold. This is particularized for two important families of spacetimes, conformal to the previous ones: (standard) static spacetimes and Generalized Robertson-Walker spacetimes. As consequence, it is shown that this new approach essentially reproduces the structure of the conformal boundary for multiple classical spacetimes: Reissner-Nordstrom (including Schwarzschild), Anti-de Sitter, Taub and standard cosmological models as de Sitter and Einstein Universe.
In this paper a systematic study of the causal structure and global causality properties of multiwarped spacetimes is developed. This analysis is used to make a detailed description of the causal boundary of these spacetimes. Some applications of our results in examples of physical interest, for instance, in the context of Maldacena's conjecture, are considered.
On the causal properties of warped product spacetimes
证明了曲积时空P=M * f H，其中H是完备的黎曼流形，它与原时空M必然具有相同的因果性质，唯一的例外是因果连续性和因果简单性，它们呈现出一些微妙的性质.例如，证明了当diamH=+ \infty时，直积时空P=M*H是因果简单的当且仅当（M，g）是因果简单的，M上的洛伦兹距离是连续的，且任意两个在有限距离上因果相关的事件通过极大化测地线连接.类似的条件被发现的因果连续性属性。得到了关于区别时空、因果连续时空和因果简单时空中洛伦兹距离行为的一些新结果。最后，得到了直积上的洛伦兹距离由两个因子（M，g）和（H，h）上的距离表示的公式。
We analyze the behavior of causal geodesics on a Kerr-de Sitter spacetime with particular emphasis on their completeness property. We set up an initial value problem (IVP) whose solutions lead to a global understanding of causal geodesics on these spacetime. Causal geodesics that avoid the rotation axis are complete except the ones that hit the ring-like curvature singularity and those that encounter the ring singularity are necessary equatorial ones. We also show the existence of geodesics that cross or lie on the rotation axis. The equations governing the latter family show the repulsive nat…
The causal properties of the family of Kerr-de Sitter spacetimes are analyzed and compared to those of the Kerr family. At first we show that a Kerr-de Sitter spacetime can be viewed as an assembly of Carter's blocks i.e. four dimensional spacetime regions contained within Killing horizons or a Killing horizon and the asymptotic de Sitter region. From this perspective and leaving aside topological identifications, the causal properties of a Kerr de Sitter spacetime are determined by the causal properties of the individual Carter's blocks viewed as spacetimes in their own right. We show that an…
A brief overview of some open questions in general relativity with important consequences for causality theory is presented, aiming to a better understanding of the causal structure of the spacetime. Special attention is accorded to the problem of fundamental causal stability conditions. Several questions are raised and some of the potential consequences of recent results regarding the causality problem in general relativity are presented. A key question is whether causality violating regions are locally allowed. The new concept of almost stable causality is introduced; meanwhile, related cond…
We offer a mathematically rigorous basis for the widely held suspicion that full black hole evaporation is in tension with predictability. Based on conditions expressing the global causal structure of evaporating black hole spacetimes, we prove two theorems in Lorentzian geometry showing that such spacetimes either fail to be causally simple or fail to be causally continuous. These theorems, when combined with recent results \cite{AM} on the causal structure of spacetimes with timelike boundary, bear significantly on the question of whether these spacetimes permit for a predictable evolution.
We study some kinematical aspects of quantum fields on causal sets. In particular, we are interested in free scalar fields on a fixed background causal set. We present various results building up to the study of the entanglement entropy of de Sitter horizons using causal sets. We begin by obtaining causal set analogs of Green functions for this field. First we construct the retarded Green function in a Riemann normal neighborhood (RNN) of an arbitrary curved spacetime. Then, we show that in de Sitter and patches of anti-de Sitter spacetimes the construction can be done beyond the RNN. This all…
Causal set quantum gravity is a Lorentzian approach to quantum gravity, based on the causal structure of spacetime. It models each spacetime configuration as a discrete causal network of spacetime points. As such, key questions of the approach include whether and how a reconstruction of a sufficiently coarse-grained spacetime geometry is possible from a causal set. As an example for the recovery of spatial geometry from discrete causal structure, the construction of a spatial distance function for causal sets is reviewed. Secondly, it is an open question whether the path sum over all causal se…
In Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity, for a group of warped product spacetimes, we get a generalized master equation for the perturbation of tensor type. We show that the "effective metric" or "acoustic metric" for the tensor perturbation equation can be defined even without a static condition. Since this master equation does not depend on the mode expansion, the hyperbolicity and causality of the tensor perturbation equation can be investigated for every mode of the perturbation. Based on the master equation, we study the hyperbolicity and causality for all relavent vacuum solutions of this theor…
Causal set non-local wave operators allow both for the definition of an action for Causal set theory and the study of deviations from local physics that may have interesting phenomenological consequences. It was previously shown that, in all dimensions, the (unique) minimal discrete operators give averaged continuum non-local operators that reduce to $\Box-R/2$ in the local limit. Recently, dropping the constraint of minimality, it was shown that there exist an infinite number of discrete operators satisfying basic physical requirements and with the right local limit in flat spacetime. In this…
We derive a formula for the spacetime volume of a small causal cone. We use this formula within the context of causal set theory to construct causal set expressions for certain geometric quantities relating to a spacetime with a spacelike hypersurface. We also consider a scalar field on the causal set, and obtain causal set expressions relating to its normal derivatives with respect to the hypersurface.
We prove that causal maximizers in $C^{0,1}$ spacetimes are either timelike or null. This question was posed in [17] since bubbling regions in $C^{0,α}$ spacetimes ($α<1$) can produce causal maximizers that contain a segment which is timelike and a segment which is null, cf. [3]. While $C^{0,1}$ spacetimes do not produce bubbling regions, the causal character of maximizers for spacetimes with regularity at least $C^{0,1}$ but less than $C^{1,1}$ was unknown until now. As an application we show that timelike geodesically complete spacetimes are $C^{0,1}$-inextendible.
This is a chapter of the planned monograph "Out of Nowhere: The Emergence of Spacetime in Quantum Theories of Gravity", co-authored by Nick Huggett and Christian Wüthrich and under contract with Oxford University Press. (More information at www.beyondspacetime.net.) This chapter introduces causal set theory and identifies and articulates a 'problem of space' in this theory.
We present some of the recent results and open questions on the causality problem in General Relativity. The concept of singularity is intimately connected with future trapped surface and inner event horizon formation. We offer a brief overview of the Hawking Penrose singularity theorems and discuss a few open problems concerning the future Cauchy development (domain of dependence), breakdown criteria and energy conditions for the horizon stability. A key question is whether causality violating regions, generating a Cauchy horizon are allowed. We raise several questions concerning the invisibi…
The causal set theory (CST) approach to quantum gravity postulates that at the most fundamental level, spacetime is discrete, with the spacetime continuum replaced by locally finite posets or "causal sets". The partial order on a causal set represents a proto-causality relation while local finiteness encodes an intrinsic discreteness. In the continuum approximation the former corresponds to the spacetime causality relation and the latter to a fundamental spacetime atomicity, so that finite volume regions in the continuum contain only a finite number of causal set elements. CST is deeply rooted…
Motivated by the Hawking-King-McCarthy-Malament (HKMM) theorem and the associated reconstruction of spacetime geometry from its causal structure $(M,\prec)$ and local volume element $ε$, we define a one-parameter family of spatial distance functions on a Cauchy hypersurface $Σ$ using only $(M,\prec)$ and $ε$. The parameter corresponds to a "mesoscale" cut-off which, when appropriately chosen, provides a distance function which approximates the induced spatial distance function to leading order. This admits a straightforward generalisation to the discrete analogue of a Cauchy hypersurface in a …
In this work we revisit the notion of the (future) causal completion of a globally hyperbolic spacetime and endow it with the structure of a Lorentzian pre-length space. We further carry out this construction for a certain class of generalized Robertson-Walker spacetimes.
We present a new method for embedding a causal set into an interval of Minkowski spacetime. The method uses spacetime volumes for causally related elements to define causal set analogs of Minkowski inner products. These are used to construct matrices of inner products which are then factored using the singular value decomposition to give coordinates in Minkowski spacetime. Results are presented showing good quality embeddings into Minkowski spacetime for dimensions d=2,3,4. The method applies in any dimension and does not require spacelike distances to be used as an input. It offers a new way …
We study the notion of causal orders for the cases of (classical and quantum) circuits and spacetime events. We show that every circuit can be immersed into a classical spacetime, preserving the compatibility between the two causal structures. Using the process matrix formalism, we analyse the realisations of the quantum switch using 4 and 3 spacetime events in classical spacetimes with fixed causal orders, and the realisation of a gravitational switch with only 2 spacetime events that features superpositions of different gravitational field configurations and their respective causal orders. W…
