The conformal geometry of spacelike surfaces in 4-dimensional Lorentzian space forms has been studied by the authors in a previous paper, where the so-called polar transform was introduced. Here it is shown that this transform preserves spacelike conformal isothermic surfaces. We relate this new transform with the known transforms (Darboux transform and spectral transform) of isothermic surfaces by establishing the permutability theorems.
In this paper, we generalize the polar transforms of spacelike isothermic surfaces in $Q^4_1$ to n-dimensional pseudo-Riemannian space forms $Q^n_r$. We show that there exist $c-$polar spacelike isothermic surfaces derived from a spacelike isothermic surface in $Q^n_r$, which are into $S^{n+1}_r(c)$, $H^{n+1}_{r-1}(c)$ or $Q^n_r$ depending on $c>0,<0,$ or $=0$. The $c-$polar isothermic surfaces can be characterized as generalized $H-$surfaces with null minimal sections. We also prove that if both the original surface and its $c-$polar surface are closed immersion, then they have the same Willm…
We address the problem of second order conformal deformation of spacelike surfaces in compactified Minkowski 4-space. We explain the construction of the exterior differential system of conformal deformations and discuss its general and singular solutions. In particular, we show that isothermic surfaces are singular solutions of the system, which implies that a generic second order deformable surface is not isothermic. This differs from the situation in 3-dimensional conformal geometry, where isothermic surfaces coincide with deformable surfaces.
The basic theory on the conformal geometry of timelike surfaces in pseudo-Riemannian space forms is introduced, which is parallel to the classical framework of Burstall etc. for spacelike surfaces. Then we provide a discussion on the transforms of timelike $(\pm)-$isothermic surfaces (or real isothermic, complex isothermic surfaces), including $c-$ polar transforms, Darboux transforms and spectral transforms. The first main result is that $c-$polar transforms preserve timelike $(\pm)-$isothermic surfaces, which are generalizations of the classical Christoffel transforms. The next main result i…
In this paper, we investigate the relations between the pitch, the angle of pitch and drall of parallel ruled surface of a closed spacelike curve with a spacelike binormal in dual Lorentzian space.
In this paper, we study three types of helicoidal surfaces in a Lorentzian n--space $\mathbb{E}^n_1$. First, we find the parametrizations of spacelike loxodromes on such spacelike helicoidal surfaces in $\mathbb{E}^n_1$. Then, we make a similar classification for spacelike loxodromes on such timelike helicoidal surfaces of a Lorentzian n--space $\mathbb{E}^n_1$.
For a regular curve on a spacelike surface in Lorentz-Minkowski $3$-space, we have a moving frame along the curve which is called a Lorentzian Darboux frame. We introduce five special vector fields along the curve associated to the Lorentzian Darboux frame and investigate their singularities.
In this paper, we investigate the relations between the pitch, the angle of pitch and drall of parallel ruled surface of a closed spacelike curve with timelike binormal in dual Lorentzian space.
The 2-parameter family of certain homogeneous Lorentzian 3-manifolds which includes Minkowski 3-space and anti-de Sitter 3-space is considered. Each homogeneous Lorentzian 3-manifold in the 2-parameter family has a solvable Lie group structure with left invariant metric. A generalized integral representation formula which is the unification of representation formulas for maximal spacelike surfaces in those homogeneous Lorentzian 3-manifolds is obtained. The normal Gauß map of maximal spacelike surfaces in those homogeneous Lorentzian 3-manifolds and its harmonicity are discussed.
Spacelike Willmore surfaces in 4-dimensional Lorentzian space forms, a topic in Lorentzian conformal geometry which parallels the theory of Willmore surfaces in $S^4$, are studied in this paper. We define two kinds of transforms for such a surface, which produce the so-called left/right polar surfaces and the adjoint surfaces. These new surfaces are again conformal Willmore surfaces. For them holds interesting duality theorem. As an application spacelike Willmore 2-spheres are classified. Finally we construct a family of homogeneous spacelike Willmore tori.
We investigate the twistor space and the Grassmannian fibre bundle of a Lorentzian 4-space with natural almost optical structures and its induced CR-structures. The twistor spaces of the Lorentzian space forms $\R^4_1, \Di{S}^4_1$ and $\Di{H}^4_1$ are explicitly discussed. The given twistor construction is applied to surface theory in Lorentzian 4-spaces. Immersed spacelike surfaces in a Lorentzian 4-space with special geometric properties like semi-umbilic surfaces and surfaces that have mean curvature of vanishing lengths correspond to holomorphic curves in the Lorentzian twistor space. For …
In this paper we prove Hessian and Laplacian comparison theorems for the Lorentzian distance function in a spacetime with sectional (or Ricci) curvature bounded by a certain function by means of a comparison criterion for Riccati equations. Using these results, under suitable conditions, we are able to obtain some estimates on the higher order mean curvatures of spacelike hypersurfaces satisfying a Omori-Yau maximum principle for certain elliptic operators.
In this paper, we obtain the characterizations of Mannheim offsets of the timelike ruled surface with spacelike rulings in dual Lorentzian space. We give the relations between terms of their integral invariants and also we give the new characterization of the Mannheim offsets of developable timelike ruled surface. Moreover, we obtain the relationships between the area of projections of spherical images for Mannheim offsets of timelike ruled surfaces and their integral invariants.
Similar to the definition of Dupin hypersurface in Riemannian space forms, we define the spacelike Dupin hypersurface in Lorentzian space forms. As conformal invariant objects, spacelike Dupin hypersurfaces are studied in this paper using the framework of conformal geometry. Further we classify the spacelike Dupin hypersurfaces with constant Möbius curvatures, which are the partition ratio of the principal curvatures of the spacelike Dupin hypersurface.
We show that the Dirac operator on a compact globally hyperbolic Lorentzian spacetime with spacelike Cauchy boundary is a Fredholm operator if appropriate boundary conditions are imposed. We prove that the index of this operator is given by the same expression as in the index formula of Atiyah-Patodi-Singer for Riemannian manifolds with boundary. The index is also shown to equal that of a certain operator constructed from the evolution operator and a spectral projection on the boundary. In case the metric is of product type near the boundary a Feynman parametrix is constructed.
We show that many Lorentzian manifolds of dimension >2 do not admit a spacelike codimension-one foliation, and that almost every manifold of dimension >2 which admits a Lorentzian metric at all admits one which satisfies the dominant energy condition and the timelike convergence condition. These two seemingly unrelated statements have in fact the same origin. We also discuss the problem of topology change in General Relativity. A theorem of Tipler says that topology change is impossible via a spacetime cobordism whose Ricci curvature satisfies the strict lightlike convergence condition. In his…
For every codimension two spacelike submanifold of a Lorentz manifold and each choice of a normal lightlike vector field, we introduce a canonical way to construct a tractor conformal bundle. We characterize when the induced connection of a such submanifold defines a tractor connection and then, in this case, when this tractor conformal bundle with the induced connection is standard for the induced metric. Finally, the normality condition for this tractor conformal bundle endowed with the induced connection is characterized in terms of a strong relationship between the intrinsic and the extrin…
Let $M^n$ be an $n$-dimensional umbilic-free hypersurface in the $(n+1)$-dimensional Lorentzian space form $M^{n+1}_1(c)$. Three basic invariants of $M^n$ under the conformal transformation group of $M^{n+1}_1(c)$ are a $1$-form $C$, called conformal $1$-form, a symmetric $(0,2)$ tensor $B$, called conformal second fundamental form, and a symmetric $(0,2)$ tensor $A$, called Blaschke tensor. The so-called para-Blaschke tensor $D^λ=A+λB$, the linear combination of $A$ and $B$, is still a symmetric $(0,2)$ tensor. A spacelike hypersurface is called a para-Blaschke isoparametric spacelike hypersu…
In this paper, we define dual geodesic trihedron(dual Darboux frame) of a spacelike ruled surface. Then, we study Mannheim offsets of spacelike ruled surfaces in dual Lorentzian space by considering the E. Study Mapping. We represent spacelike ruled surfaces by dual Lorentzian unit spherical curves and define Mannheim offsets of the spacelike ruled surfaces by means of dual Darboux frame. We obtain relationships between the invariants of Mannheim spacelike offset surfaces and offset angle, offset distance. Furthermore, we give conditions for these surface offsets to be developable.
The maximal analytic Schwarzschild spacetime is manifestly inextendible as a Lorentzian manifold with a twice continuously differentiable metric. In this paper, we prove the stronger statement that it is even inextendible as a Lorentzian manifold with a continuous metric. To capture the obstruction to continuous extensions through the curvature singularity, we introduce the notion of the spacelike diameter of a globally hyperbolic region of a Lorentzian manifold with a merely continuous metric and give a sufficient condition for the spacelike diameter to be finite. The investigation of low-reg…
In this paper we generalize in Lorentz-Minkowski space $ł^3$ the two-dimensional analogue of the catenary of Euclidean space. We solve the Dirichlet problem for bounded mean convex domains and spacelike boundary data that have a spacelike extension to the domain. We also classify all singular maximal surfaces of $ł^3$ invariant by a uniparametric group of translations and rotations.
In this paper we provide several uniqueness and non-existence results for complete parabolic constant mean curvature spacelike hypersurfaces in Lorentzian warped products under appropriate geometric assumptions. As a consequence of this parametric study, we obtain very general uniqueness and non-existence results for a large family of uniformly elliptic EDP's, so solving the Calabi-Bernstein problem in a wide family of spacetimes.
We classify (spacelike or timelike) surfaces of revolution with zero $f$-mean curvature in $\Bbb G^2\times\Bbb R_1,$ the Lorentz-Minkowski 3-space $\Bbb R^3_1$ endowed with the Gaussian-Euclidean density $e^{-f(x,y,z)}=\frac 1{2π}e^{-\frac{x^2+y^2}2}.$ It is proved that an $f$-maximal surface of revolution is either a horizontal plane or a spacelike $f$-Catenoid. For the timelike case, a timelike $f$-minimal surface is either a vertical plane containing $z$-axis, the cylinder $x^2+y^2=1,$ or a timelike $f$-Catenoid. Spacelike and timelike $f$-Catenoids are new examples of $f$-minimal surfaces …
A new approach to the study of spacelike submanifolds in a spherical Robertson-Walker spacetime: characterization of the stationary spacelike submanifolds as an application
We show that isothermic surfaces and S-Willmore surfaces are also the solutions to the corresponding Blaschke's problem for both spacelike and timelike surfaces in pseudo-Riemannian space forms. For timelike surfaces both Willmore and isothermic, we obtain a description by minimal surfaces similar to the classical results of Thomsen.
Three explicit families of spacelike Zoll surface admitting a Killing field are provided. It allows to prove the existence of spacelike Zoll surface not smoothly conformal to a cover of de Sitter space as well as the existence of Lorentzian Möbius strips of non constant curvature all of whose spacelike geodesics are closed. Further the conformality problem for spacelike Zoll cylinders is studied.
Anti-de Sitter space is the Lorentzian space form with negative curvature. In this paper we consider lightlike hypersurfaces along spacelike submanifolds in anti-de Sitter space with general codimension. In particular, we investigate the singularities of lightlike hypersurfaces as an application of the theory of Legendrian singularities.
Let E be the Engel group and D be a rank 2 bracket generating left invariant distribution with a Lorentzian metric, which is a nondegenerate metric of index 1. In this paper, we first prove that timelike normal extremals are locally maximizing. Second, we obtain a parametrization of timelike, spacelike, lightlike normal extremal trajectories by Jacobi functions. Third, a discrete symmetry group and its fixed points which are Maxwell points of of timelike and spacelike normal extremals, are described. An estimate for the cut time (the time of loss of optimality) on extremal trajectories is deri…
In this paper we study weakly irreducible holonomy representations of the normal connection of a spacelike submanifold in a pseudo-Riemannian space from. We associate screen representations to weakly irreducible normal holonomy groups and classify the screen representations having the Borel-Lichnérowicz property. In particular, we derive a classification of Lorentzian normal holonomy representations.
In this paper, we define and, then, we characterize constant angle spacelike and timelike surfaces in the three-dimensional Heisenberg group, equipped with a 1-parameter family of Lorentzian metrics. In particular, we give an explicit local parametrization of these surfaces and we produce some examples.
Some analysis on the Lorentzian distance in a spacetime with controlled sectional (or Ricci) curvatures is done. In particular, we focus on the study of the restriction of such distance to a spacelike hypersurface satisfying the Omori-Yau maximum principle. As a consequence, and under appropriate hypotheses on the (sectional or Ricci) curvatures of the ambient spacetime, we obtain sharp estimates for the mean curvature of those hypersurfaces. Moreover, we also give a suficient condition for its hyperbolicity.
We prove that any metric of non-positive curvature in the sense of Alexandrov on a compact surface can be isometrically embedded as a convex spacelike Cauchy surface in a flat spacetime of dimension (2+1). The proof follows from polyhedral approximation.
There are examples of complete spacelike surfaces in the Lorentzian product $\mathbb{H}^2\times\mathbb{R}_1$ with constant Gaussian curvature $K\leq -1$. In this paper, we show that there exists no complete spacelike surface in $\mathbb{H}^2\times\mathbb{R}_1$ with constant Gaussian curvature $K>-1$.
There are three types of hypersurfaces in a pseudoconformal space C^n_1 of Lorentzian signature: spacelike, timelike, and lightlike. These three types of hypersurfaces are considered in parallel. Spacelike hypersurfaces are endowed with a proper conformal structure, and timelike hypersurfaces are endowed with a conformal structure of Lorentzian type. Geometry of these two types of hypersurfaces can be studied in a manner that is similar to that for hypersurfaces of a proper conformal space. Lightlike hypersurfaces are endowed with a degenerate conformal structure. This is the reason that their…
Starting from the Hawking--Page solutions, we consider the corresponding Lorentzian cone metrics. These represent cone interior scale-invariant vacuum solutions, defined in the chronological past of the scaling origin. We extend the Lorentzian Hawking--Page solutions to the cone exterior region in the class of $(4+1)$-dimensional scale-invariant vacuum solutions with an $SO(3)\times U(1)$ isometry, using the Kaluza--Klein reduction and the methods of Christodoulou. We prove that each Lorentzian Hawking--Page solution has extensions with a null curvature singularity, extensions with a spacelike…
Helfer in [Pacific J. Math. 164/2 (1994), p. 321--350] was the first to produce an example of a spacelike Lorentzian geodesic with a continuum of conjugate points. In this paper we show the following result: given an interval $[a,b]$ of $IR$ and any closed subset $F$ of $IR$ contained in $]a,b]$, then there exists a Lorentzian manifold $(M,g)$ and a spacelike geodesic $γ:[a,b]\to M$ such that $γ(t)$ is conjugate to $γ(a)$ along $γ$ iff $t\in F$.
Kenmotsu's formula describes surfaces in Euclidean 3-space by their mean curvature functions and Gauss maps. In Lorentzian 3-space, Akutagawa-Nishikawa's formula and Magid's formula are Kenmotsu-type formulas for spacelike surfaces and for timelike surfaces, respectively. We apply them to a few problems concerning rotational or helicoidal surfaces with constant mean curvature. Before that, we show that the three formulas above can be written in a unified single equation.
In this work, we study helix spacelike and timelike surfaces in the Lorentzian Berger sphere $\s_{\varepsilon}^3$, that is the three-dimensional sphere endowed with a $1$-parameter family of Lorentzian metrics, obtained by deforming the round metric on $\s^3$ along the fibers of the Hopf fibration $\s^3\to \s^2({1}/{2})$ by $-\varepsilon^2$. Our main result provides a characterization of the helix surfaces in $\s_{\varepsilon}^3$ using the symmetries of the ambient space and a general helix in $\s_{\varepsilon}^3$, with axis the infinitesimal generator of the Hopf fibers. Also, we construct so…
We study the motion of an $n$-dimensional closed spacelike hypersurface in a Lorentzian manifold in the direction of its past directed normal vector, where the speed equals a positive power $p$ of the mean curvature. We prove that for any $p\in (0,1]$, the flow exists for all time when the Ricci tensor of the ambient space is bounded from below on the set of timelike unit vectors. Moreover, if we assume that all envolving hypersurfaces stay in a precompact region, then the flow converges to a stationary maximum spacelike hypersurface.
A mixed type surface is a connected regular surface in a Lorentzian 3-manifold with non-empty spacelike and timelike point sets. The induced metric of a mixed type surface is a signature-changing metric, and their lightlike points may be regarded as singular points of such metrics. In this paper, we investigate the behavior of Gaussian curvature at a non-degenerate lightlike point of a mixed type surface. To characterize the boundedness of Gaussian curvature at a non-degenerate lightlike points, we introduce several fundamental invariants along non-degenerate lightlike points, such as the ligh…
We study the weighted light ray transform $L$ of integrating functions on a Lorentzian manifold over lightlike geodesics. We analyze $L$ as a Fourier Integral Operator and show that if there are no conjugate points, one can recover the spacelike singularities of a function $f$ from its the weighted light ray transform $Lf$ by a suitable filtered back-projection.
We study the geometry of stable maximal hypersurfaces in a variety of spacetimes satisfying various physically relevant curvature assumptions, for instance the Timelike Convergence Condition (TCC). We characterize stability when the target space has constant sectional curvature as well as give sufficient conditions on the geometry of the ambient spacetime (e.g., the validity of TCC) to ensure stability. Some rigidity results and height estimates are also proven in GRW spacetimes. In the last part of the paper we consider $k$-stability of spacelike hypersurfaces, a concept related to mean curva…
We give a spinorial characterization of isometrically immersed surfaces of arbitrary signature into 3-dimensional pseudo-Riemannian space forms. For Lorentzian surfaces, this generalizes a recent work of the first author in $\mathbb{R}^{2,1}$ to other Lorentzian space forms. We also characterize immersions of Riemannian surfaces in these spaces. From this we can deduce analogous results for timelike immersions of Lorentzian surfaces in space forms of corresponding signature, as well as for spacelike and timelike immersions of surfaces of signature (0,2), hence achieving a complete spinorial de…
We give local, explicit representation formulas for n-dimensional spacelike submanifolds which are marginally trapped in the Minkowski space, the de Sitter and anti de Sitter spaces and the Lorentzian products of the sphere and the hyperbolic space by the real line.
In this work we find all helicoidal surfaces in Minkowski space with constant mean curvature whose generating curve is a the graph of a polynomial or a Lorentzian circle. In the first case, we prove that the degree of the polynomial is $0$ or $1$ and that the surface is ruled. If the generating curve is a Lorentzian circle, we show that the only possibility is that the axis is spacelike and the center of the circle lies in the axis.
We prove that maximal annuli in $\mathbb{L}^{3}$ bounded by circles, straight lines or cone points in a pair of parallel spacelike planes are part of either a Lorentzian catenoid or a Lorentzian Riemann's example. We show that under the same boundary condition, the same conclusion holds even when the maximal annuli have a planar end. Moreover, we extend Shiffman's convexity result to maximal annuli but by using Perron's method we construct a maximal annulus with a planar end where Shiffman type result fails.
