We discuss (arbitrary-dimensional) Lorentzian manifolds and the scalar polynomial curvature invariants constructed from the Riemann tensor and its covariant derivatives. Recently, we have shown that in four dimensions a Lorentzian spacetime metric is either $\mathcal{I}$-non-degenerate, and hence locally characterized by its scalar polynomial curvature invariants, or is a degenerate Kundt spacetime. We present a number of results that generalize these results to higher dimensions and discuss their consequences and potential physical applications.
A process for using curvature invariants is applied as a new means to evaluate the traversability of Lorentzian wormholes and to display the wormhole spacetime manifold. This approach was formulated by Henry, Overduin and Wilcomb for Black Holes in Reference [1]. Curvature invariants are independent of coordinate basis, so the process is free of coordinate mapping distortions and the same regardless of your chosen coordinates. The four independent Carminati and McLenaghan (CM) invariants are calculated and the non-zero curvature invariant functions are plotted. Three example traversable wormho…
In this paper, we prove Lorentzian positive mass theorem for spacetimes with distributional curvature. To do so, we introduce distributional curvature and generalized Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) momentum. As an application, we discuss a junction of spacetimes.
The b-boundary is a mathematical tool used to attach a topological boundary to incomplete Lorentzian manifolds using a Riemaniann metric called the Schmidt metric on the frame bundle. In this paper, we give the general form of the Schmidt metric in the case of Lorentzian surfaces. Furthermore, we write the Ricci scalar of the Schmidt metric in terms of the Ricci scalar of the Lorentzian manifold and give some examples. Finally, we discuss some applications to general relativity.
We analyze Lorentzian spacetimes subject to curvature-dimension bounds using the Bakry-Émery-Ricci tensor. We extend the Hawking-Penrose type singularity theorem and the Lorentzian timelike splitting theorem to synthetic dimensions $N\le 1$, including all negative synthetic dimensions. The rigidity of the timelike splitting reduces to a warped product splitting when $N=1$. We also extend the null splitting theorem of Lorentzian geometry, showing that it holds under a null curvature-dimension bound on the Bakry-Émery-Ricci tensor for all $N\in (-\infty, 2]\cup (n,\infty)$ and for the $N=\infty$…
In the present paper we establish area and volume estimates for spacetimes satisfying the strong energy condition in terms of the area and the $L^n$-norm of the second fundamental form or the mean curvature of an initial Cauchy hypersurface. We believe that these estimates will lay some of the groundwork in establishing new convergence results for Cauchy developments $(M_j, g_j)$ of suitably converging initial data $(Σ_j ,h_j ,K_j )$.
In this paper I shall show how notions of Finsler geometry can be used to construct a new type of geometry using a scalar field, f, on the cotangent bundle of a differentiable manifold, M. This new geometry will be called Lorentzian Cofinsler geometry. This geometry will enable me to use the second vertical derivatives of f, along with the differential of the scalar field, phi on M, to construct a Lorentzian metric tensor on M, that depends upon phi. f will be chosen so that the resultant metric on M has the form of a FLRW metric, with the t equal constant slices being flat. When the Horndeski…
We study whether it is possible to design a "classical" spatially flat bouncing cosmology or a static, spherically symmetric asymptotically flat Lorentzian wormhole in cubic Galileon theories interacting with an extra scalar field. We show that bouncing models are always plagued with gradient instabilities, while there are always ghosts in wormhole backgrounds.
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…
Noether symmetry has been invoked to explore the forms of a couple of coupling parameters and the potential appearing in a general scalar-tensor theory of gravity in the background of Robertson-Walker space-time. Exact solutions of Einstein's field equations in the familiar Brans-Dicke, Induced gravity and a General non-minimally coupled scalar-tensor theories of gravity have been found using the conserved current and the energy equation, after being expressed in a set of new variables. Noticeably, the form of the scale factors remains unaltered in all the three cases and represents cosmologic…
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…
We consider general relativity with cosmological constant minimally coupled to the electromagnetic field and assume that the four-dimensional space-time manifold is a warped product of two surfaces with Lorentzian and Euclidean signature metrics. Field equations imply that at least one of the surfaces must be of constant curvature leading to the symmetry of the metric (``spontaneous symmetry emergence''). We classify all global solutions in the case when the Lorentzian surface is of constant curvature. These solutions are invariant with respect to the Lorentz SO(1,2) or Poincare IO(1,1) groups…
We study constant mean curvature Lorentzian hypersurfaces of $\mathbb{R}^{1,d+1}$ from the point of view of its Cauchy problem. We completely classify the spherically symmetric solutions, which include among them a manifold isometric to the de Sitter space of general relativity. We show that the spherically symmetric solutions exhibit one of three (future) asymptotic behaviours: (i) finite time collapse (ii) convergence to a time-like cylinder isometric to some $\mathbb{R}\times\mathbb{S}^d$ and (iii) infinite expansion to the future converging asymptotically to a time translation of the de Si…
We examine the existence of one parameter groups of diffeomorphisms whose infinitesimal generators annihilate all scalar polynomial curvature invariants through the application of the Lie derivative, known as $\mathcal{I}$-preserving diffeomorphisms. Such mappings are a generalization of isometries and appear to be related to nil-Killing vector fields, for which the associated Lie derivative of the metric yields a nilpotent rank two tensor. We show that the set of nil-Killing vector fields contains Lie algebras, although the Lie algebras may be infinite and can contain elements which are not $…
We embed Nelson's stochastic quantization in the Schwartz-Meyer second order geometry framework. The result is a non-perturbative theory of quantum mechanics on (pseudo)-Riemannian manifolds. Within this approach, we derive stochastic differential equations for massive spin-0 test particles charged under scalar potentials, vector potentials and gravity. Furthermore, we derive the associated Schrödinger equation. The resulting equations show that massive scalar particles must be conformally coupled to gravity in a theory of quantum gravity. We conclude with a discussion of some prospects of the…
In this note, we consider perturbations of Minkowski space as well as more general spacetimes on which the wave operator $\square_g$ is essentially self-adjoint. We review a recent result which gives the meromorphic continuation of the Lorentzian spectral zeta function density, i.e. of the trace density of complex powers $α\mapsto (\square_g-i \varepsilon)^{-α}$. In even dimension $n\geq 4$, the residue at $\frac{n}{2}-1$ is shown to be a multiple of the scalar curvature in the limit $\varepsilon\to 0^+$. This yields a spectral action for gravity in Lorentzian signature.
We study the low-regularity (in-)extendibility of spacetimes within the synthetic-geometric framework of Lorentzian length spaces developed in [KS:17]. To this end, we introduce appropriate notions of geodesics and timelike geodesic completeness and prove a general inextendibility result. Our results shed new light on recent analytic work in this direction and, for the first time, relate low-regularity inextendibility to (synthetic) curvature blow-up.
