The notion of maximal extension of a globally hyperbolic space-time arises from the notion of maximal solutions of the Cauchy problem associated to the Einstein's equations of general relativity. In 1969 Choquet-Bruhat and Geroch proved that if the Cauchy problem has a local solution, this solution has a unique maximal extension. Since the causal structure of a space-time is invariant under conformal changes of metrics we may generalize this notion of maximality to the conformal setting. In this article we focus on conformally flat space-times of dimension greater or equal than 3. In this case, by a Lorentzian version of Liouville theorem, these space-times are locally modeled on the Einstein space-time. In the first part we use this fact to prove the existence and uniqueness of the maximum extension for globally hyperbolic conformally flat space-times. In the second part we find a causal characterization of globally hyperbolic conformally flat maximal space-times whose developing map is a global diffeomorphism.
We derive a new renormalized volume formula for conformally compact asymptotically hyperbolic manifolds in dimension four. The formula generalizes the ones given by Anderson, Albin, and Chang-Qing-Yang for the case of Poincare-Einstein manifolds. We also derive variational formulas for the renormalized seen as a functional on the manifold.
We derive a relationship between the eigenvalues of the Weyl-Schouten tensor of a conformal representative of the conformal infinity of a hyperbolic Poincaré manifold and the principal curvatures on the level sets of its uniquely associated defining function with calculations based on [9] [10]. This relationship generalizes the result for hypersurfaces in ${\H}^{n+1}$ and their connection to the conformal geometry of ${\SS}^n$ as exhibited in [7] and gives a correspondence between Weingarten hypersurfaces in hyperbolic Poincaré manifolds and conformally invariant equations on the conformal inf…
We show that locally conformally flat quasi-Einstein manifolds are globally conformally equivalent to a space form or locally isometric to a $pp$-wave or a warped product.
We prove global existence of instantaneously complete Yamabe flows on hyperbolic space of arbitrary dimension $m\geq3$ starting from any smooth, conformally hyperbolic initial metric. We do not require initial completeness or curvature bounds. With the same methods, we show rigidity of hyperbolic space under the Yamabe flow.
The subject of this paper is the explicit momentum construction of complete Einstein metrics by ODE methods. Using the Calabi ansatz, further generalized by Hwang-Singer, we show that there are non-trivial complete conformally Kähler Einstein metrics on certain Hermitian holomorphic vector bundles and their subbundles over complete Kähler-Einstein manifolds. In special cases, we give the explicit expressions of of these metrics. These examples show that there is a compact Kähler manifold $M$ and its subvariety $N$ whose codimension is greater than 1 such that there is a complete conformally Kä…
Given a globally hyperbolic spacetime endowed with a complete lightlike Killing vector field and a complete Cauchy hypersurface, we characterize the points which can be connected by geodesics. A straightforward consequence is the geodesic connectedness of globally hyperbolic generalized plane waves with a complete Cauchy hypersurface.
It is shown that the space of null geodesics of a causally simple Lorentzian manifold is Hausdorff if it admits an open conformal embedding into a globally hyperbolic spacetime. This provides an obstruction to conformal embeddings of causally simple spacetimes into globally hyperbolic ones irrespective of curvature conditions. Examples of causally simple spacetimes are given not conformally embeddable into globally hyperbolic ones.
We prove that each special Lorentzian holonomy group (with the exception of those including the isotropy groups of Kähler symmetric spaces with rank greater than one) can be realized as the holonomy group of a globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifold.
Following the lines of the celebrated Riemannian result of Gromoll and Meyer, we use infinite dimensional equivariant Morse theory to establish the existence of infinitely many geometrically distinct closed geodesics in a class of globally hyperbolic stationary Lorentzian manifolds.
In this paper, we study the fundamental group of a certain class of globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifolds with a positive curvature tensor. We prove that the fundamental group of lightlike geodesically complete parametrized Lorentzian products is finite under the conditions of a positive curvature tensor and the fiber compact.
Let $S$ be a closed oriented surface of genus at least $2$. Using the parameterisation of the deformation space of globally hyperbolic maximal anti-de Sitter structures on $S \times \mathbb{R}$ by the cotangent bundle over the Teichmüller space of $S$, we study the behaviour of these geometric structures along pinching sequences. We show, in particular, that the regular globally hyperbolic anti-de Sitter structures introduced in arXiv:1806.08176 naturally appear as limiting points.
We show that complete conformally flat manifolds of dimension n>2 with nonnegative Ricci curvature enjoy nice rigidity properties: they are either flat, or locally isometric to a product of a sphere and a line, or are globally conformally equivalent to flat space or to a spherical spaceform. This extends previous works by Q.-M. Cheng, M.H. Noronha, B.-L. Chen and X.-P. Zhu, and S. Zhu.
In this paper we examine the structure of Riemannian manifolds with a special kind of Codazzi tensors. We use them to construct globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifolds with complete Cauchy hypersurfaces for any weakly irreducible holonomy representation with parallel spinors, i.e. with a holonomy group which is a semidirect product between $\R^{n-2}$ and one of $\1, SU(k), Sp(1), G_2$ and $Spin(7)$.
We introduce a class of "weakly asymptotically hyperbolic" geometries whose sectional curvatures tend to $-1$ and are $C^0$, but are not necessarily $C^1$, conformally compact. We subsequently investigate the rate at which curvature invariants decay at infinity, identifying a conformally invariant tensor which serves as an obstruction to "higher order decay" of the Riemann curvature operator. Finally, we establish Fredholm results for geometric elliptic operators, extending the work of Rafe Mazzeo and John M. Lee to this setting. As an application, we show that any weakly asymptotically hyperb…
We study the topology of a complete asymptotically hyperbolic Einstein manifold such that its conformal boundary has positive Yamabe invariant. We proved that all maps from such manifold into any nonpositively curved manifold are homotopically trivial. Our proof is based on a Bochner type argument on harmonic maps.
The main purpose of this monograph is to give an elementary and self-contained account of the existence of asymptotically hyperbolic Einstein metrics with prescribed conformal infinities sufficiently close to that of a given asymptotically hyperbolic Einstein metric with nonpositive curvature. The proof is based on an elementary derivation of sharp Fredholm theorems for self-adjoint geometric linear elliptic operators on asymptotically hyperbolic manifolds.
We define a partition of the space of projectively flat metrics in three classes according to the sign of the Chern scalar curvature; we prove that the class of negative projectively flat metrics is empty, and that the class of positive projectively flat metrics consists precisely of locally conformally flat-Kähler metrics on Hopf manifolds, explicitly characterized by Vaisman. Finally, we review the properties of zero projectively flat metrics. As applications, we refine a list of possible projectively flat metrics by Li, Yau, and Zheng; moreover we prove that projectively flat astheno-Kähler…
In this paper, we study generic conformally flat hypersurfaces in the Euclidean $4$-space $\mathbb{R}^4$ using the framework of Möbius geometry. First, we classify locally the generic conformally flat hypersurfaces with closed Möbius form under the Möbius transformation group of $\mathbb{R}^4$. Such examples come from cones, cylinders, or rotational hypersurfaces over the surfaces with constant Gaussian curvature in $3$-spheres, Euclidean $3$-spaces, or hyperbolic $3$-spaces, respectively. Second, we investigate the global behavior of the generic conformally flat hypersurface and give some int…
Anosov representations were introduced by F. Labourie [18] for fundamental groups of closed negatively curved surfaces, and generalized by O. Guichard and A. Wienhard [19] to representations of arbitrary Gromov hyperbolic groups into real semisimple Lie groups. In this paper, we focus on Anosov representations into the identity component O0(2, n) of O(2, n) for n $\ge$ 2. Our main result is that any Anosov representation with negative limit set as defined in [8] is the holonomy group of a spatially compact, globally hyperbolic maximal (abbrev. CGHM) conformally flat spacetime. The proof of the…
This is the second in a series of papers where we estab- lish skin structural concepts and results for singular area minimizing hypersurfaces. Here we conformally unfold these spaces to complete Gromov hyperbolic spaces with bounded geometry and we recover their singular set as the Gromov boundary but also as the Martin boundary for many classical elliptic operators.
In this paper, we study some intrinsic characterization of conformally compact manifolds. We show that, if a complete Riemannian manifold admits an essential set and its curvature tends to -1 at infinity in certain rate, then it is conformally compactifiable and the compactified metrics can enjoy some regularity at infinity. As consequences we prove some rigidity theorems for complete manifolds whose curvature tends to the hyperbolic one in a rate greater than 2.
Our first objective in this paper is to give a natural formulation of the Christoffel problem for hypersurfaces in $H^{n+1}$, by means of the hyperbolic Gauss map and the notion of hyperbolic curvature radii for hypersurfaces. Our second objective is to provide an explicit equivalence of this Christoffel problem with the famous problem of prescribing scalar curvature on $§^n$ for conformal metrics, posed by Nirenberg and Kazdan-Warner. This construction lets us translate into the hyperbolic setting the known results for the scalar curvature problem, and also provides a hypersurface theory inte…
In this short note, a question of patching together globally hyperbolic manifolds is adressed which appeared in the context of the construction of Hadamard states.
We consider globally hyperbolic maximal anti de Sitter 3-manifolds $M$ with a closed Cauchy surface $S$ of genus greater than one and prove that any pair of hyperbolic metrics on $S$ can be realized as the boundary metrics of the convex core of a maximal globally hyperbolic anti de Sitter 3-manifold structure on $M$. This answers the existence part of a question of Mess about the unique realization of such metrics. Our theorem has a nice formulation purely in terms of 2-dimensional Teichmüller theory and earthquakes.
Let $M$ be a globally hyperbolic maximal compact $3$-dimensional spacetime locally modelled on Minkowski, anti-de Sitter or de Sitter space. It is well known that $M$ admits a unique foliation by constant mean curvature surfaces. In this paper we extend this result to singular spacetimes with particles (cone singularities of angles less than $π$ along time-like geodesics).
Conformally compact asymptotically hyperbolic metrics have been intensively studied. The goal of this note is to understand what intrinsic conditions on a complete Riemannian manifold (M,g) will ensure that g is asymptotically hyperbolic in this sense. We use the geodesic compactification by asymptotic geodesic rays to compactify M and appropriate curvature decay conditions to study the regularity of the conformal compactification. We also present an interesting example that shows our conclusion is nearly optimal for our assumptions.
The aim of this paper is to give an upper bound for the intrinsic diameter of a surface with boundary immersed in a conformally flat three dimensional Riemannian manifold in terms of the integral of the mean curvature and of the length of its boundary. Of particular interest is the application of the inequality to minimal surfaces in the three-sphere and in the hyperbolic space. Here the result implies an a priori estimate for connected solutions of Plateau's problem, as well as a necessary condition on the boundary data for the existence of such solutions. The proof follows a construction of …
Let $Σ$ be a connected, oriented surface with punctures and negative Euler characteristic. We introduce wild globally hyperbolic anti-de Sitter structures on $Σ\times \mathbb{R}$ and provide two parameterisations of their deformation space: as a quotient of the product of two copies of the Teichmüller space of crowned hyperbolic surfaces and as the bundle over the Teichmüller space of $Σ$ of meromorphic quadratic differentials with poles of order at least $3$ at the punctures.
Let $Σ$ be a connected, oriented surface with punctures and negative Euler characteristic. We introduce regular globally hyperbolic anti-de Sitter structures on $Σ\times \mathbb{R}$ and provide two parameterisations of their deformation space: as an enhanced product of two copies of the Fricke space of $Σ$ and as the bundle over the Teichmüller space of $Σ$ whose fibre consists of meromorphic quadratic differentials with poles of order at most $2$ at the punctures.
We give a topological condition for a generic sliced space to be globally hyperbolic, without any hypothesis on the lapse function, shift function and spatial metric.
The group of conformal diffeomorphisms and the group of causal automorphisms on two-dimensional globally hyperbolic spacetimes are clarified. It is shown that if spacetimes have non-compact Cauchy surfaces, then the groups are subgroups of that of two-dimensional Minkowski spacetime, and if spacetimes have compact Cauchy surfaces, then the groups are subgroups of that of two-dimensional Einstein's static universe.
In this paper, a geometric process to compare solutions of symmetric hyperbolic systems on (possibly different) globally hyperbolic manifolds is realized via a family of intertwining operators. By fixing a suitable parameter, it is shown that the resulting intertwining operator preserves Hermitian forms naturally defined on the space of homogeneous solutions. As an application, we investigate the action of the intertwining operators in the context of algebraic quantum field theory. In particular, we provide a new geometric proof for the existence of the so-called Hadamard states on globally hy…
We give a new proof of the uniformization theorem of the leaves of a lamination by surfaces of hyperbolic conformal type. We use a laminated version of the Ricci flow to prove the existence of a laminated Riemannian metric (smooth on the leaves, transversaly continuous) with leaves of constant Gaussian curvature equal to -1, which is conformally equivalent to the original metric.
Globally hyperbolic spacetimes admitting infinitely many causal (and timelike) homotopy classes of curves joining two prescribed points, are exhibited and discussed.
In this note a proof is given for global existence and uniqueness of minimal surfaces of Lorentzian type from a cylinder into globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifolds for given initial values up to the first derivatives.
In this article, existence results concerning temporal functions with additional properties on a globally hyperbolic manifold are obtained. These properties are certain bounds on geometric quantities as lapse and shift. The results are linked to completeness properties and the existence of closed isometric embeddings in Minkowski spaces.
The fermionic signature operator is analyzed on globally hyperbolic Lorentzian surfaces. The connection between the spectrum of the fermionic signature operator and geometric properties of the surface is studied. The findings are illustrated by simple examples and counterexamples.
We consider a hyperbolic Dirac-type operator with growing potential on a a spatially non-compact globally hyperbolic manifold. We show that the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer boundary value problem for such operator is Fredholm and obtain a formula for this index in terms of the local integrals and the relative eta-invariant introduced by Braverman and Shi. This extends recent results of Bär and Strohmaier, who studied the index of a hyperbolic Dirac operator on a spatially compact globally hyperbolic manifold.
Geroch's theorem about the splitting of globally hyperbolic spacetimes is a central result in global Lorentzian Geometry. Nevertheless, this result was obtained at a topological level, and the possibility to obtain a metric (or, at least, smooth) version has been controversial since its publication in 1970. In fact, this problem has remained open until a definitive proof, recently provided by the authors. Our purpose is to summarize the history of the problem, explain the smooth and metric splitting results (including smoothability of time functions in stably causal spacetimes), and sketch the…
We investigate 3-dimensional globally hyperbolic AdS manifolds containing "particles", i.e., cone singularities of angles less than $2π$ along a time-like graph $Γ$. To each such space we associate a graph and a finite family of pairs of hyperbolic surfaces with cone singularities. We show that this data is sufficient to recover the space locally (i.e., in the neighborhood of a fixed metric). This is a partial extension of a result of Mess for non-singular globally hyperbolic AdS manifolds.
We present a set of global invariants, called "mass integrals", which can be defined for a large class of asymptotically hyperbolic Riemannian manifolds. When the "boundary at infinity" has spherical topology one single invariant is obtained, called the mass; we show positivity thereof. We apply the definition to conformally compactifiable manifolds, and show that the mass is completion-independent. We also prove the result, closely related to the problem at hand, that conformal completions of conformally compactifiable manifolds are unique.
Globally hyperbolic spacetimes with timelike boundary $(\overline{M} = M \cup \partial M, g)$ are the natural class of spacetimes where regular boundary conditions (eventually asymptotic, if $\overline{M}$ is obtained by means of a conformal embedding) can be posed. $\partial M$ represents the naked singularities and can be identified with a part of the intrinsic causal boundary. Apart from general properties of $\partial M$, the splitting of any globally hyperbolic $(\overline{M},g)$ as an orthogonal product ${\mathbb R}\times \barΣ$ with Cauchy slices with boundary $\{t\}\times \barΣ$ is pro…
We investigate a generalization of the so-called metric splitting of globally hyperbolic space-times to non-smooth Lorentzian manifolds and show the existence of this metric splitting for a class of wave-type space-times. Our approach is based on smooth approximations of non-smooth space-times by families (or sequences) of globally hyperbolic space-times. In the same setting we indicate as an application the extension of a previous result on the Cauchy problem for the wave equation.
The folk questions in Lorentzian Geometry, which concerns the smoothness of time functions and slicings by Cauchy hypersurfaces, are solved by giving simple proofs of: (a) any globally hyperbolic spacetime $(M,g)$ admits a smooth time function $τ$ whose levels are spacelike Cauchy hyperfurfaces and, thus, also a smooth global splitting $M= \R \times {\cal S}$, $g= - β(τ,x) dτ^2 + \bar g_τ$, (b) if a spacetime $M$ admits a (continuous) time function $t$ (i.e., it is stably causal) then it admits a smooth (time) function $τ$ with timelike gradient $\nabla τ$ on all $M$.
Green-hyperbolic operators are linear differential operators acting on sections of a vector bundle over a Lorentzian manifold which possess advanced and retarded Green's operators. The most prominent examples are wave operators and Dirac-type operators. This paper is devoted to a systematic study of this class of differential operators. For instance, we show that this class is closed under taking restrictions to suitable subregions of the manifold, under composition, under taking "square roots", and under the direct sum construction. Symmetric hyperbolic systems are studied in detail.
We give an example of a spacetime with a continuous metric which is globally hyperbolic and exhibits causal bubbling. The metric moreover splits orthogonally into a timelike and a spacelike part. We discuss our example in the context of energy conditions and the recently introduced synthetic timelike curvature-dimension (TCD) condition. In particular we observe that the TCD-condition does not, by itself, prevent causal bubbling.
We consider the Dirac operator on globally hyperbolic manifolds with timelike boundary and show well-posedness of the Cauchy initial-boundary value problem coupled to MIT-boundary conditions. This is achieved by transforming the problem locally into a symmetric positive hyperbolic system, proving existence and uniqueness of weak solutions and then using local methods developed by Lax, Phillips and Rauch, Massey to show smoothness of the solutions. Our proof actually works for a slightly more general class of local boundary conditions.
