In the present work, a theoretical framework focussing on local geometric deformations is introduced in order to cope with the problem of how to join spacetimes with different geometries and physical properties. Using this framework, it is shown that two Lorentzian manifolds can be matched in agreement with the well-known Darmois-Israel junction conditions by locally deforming the associated spacetime metrics in relation to each other. Based on the insight that metrics can be suitably matched in this way, it is shown that the underlying geometric approach allows the characterization of local spacetimes in General Relativity. In addition, it is shown that this approach allows the treatment of problems that cannot be treated by using standard gluing techniques.
We consider a spacetime corresponding to uniform relativistic potential analogus to Newtonian potential as an example of ``minimally curved spacetime''. We also consider a radially symmetric analogue of the Rindler spacetime of uniform proper acceleration relative to infinity.
Within the framework of projective geometry, we investigate kinematics and symmetry in $(α,β)$ spacetime-one special types of Finsler spacetime. The projectively flat $(α,β)$ spacetime with constant flag curvature is divided into four types. The symmetry in type A-Riemann spacetime with constant sectional curvature is just the one in de Sitter special relativity. The symmetry in type B-locally Minkowski spacetime is just the one in very special relativity. It is found that type C-Funk spacetime and type D-scaled Berwald's metric spacetime both possess the Lorentz group as its isometric group. …
Lorentz transformation on two-dimensional spacetime is obtained without assumption of linearity. To obtain this, we use the invariance of wave equations, which is recently proved to be equivalent to the causality preservation.
The parity violation at the level of weak interactions and other similar discrete symmetries breaking show that the invariance of laws under the full group of Lorentz transformations can not be taken granted. We examine the principle of Lorentz invariance under the general theory of relativity, and demonstrate the importance of a concept of the spacetime orientation as part of the causal structure of spacetime.
We summarize some of the results we obtained in arXiv:1006.2126 (Physical Review Letters 106, 071301), arXiv:1102.4637 (Physics Letters B 700, 150-156) and in arXiv:1107.3334, giving complementary characterizations of the relativity of spacetime locality that affects certain Planck-scale-deformed phase-space descriptions of free particles.
Beginning from only a countable dense set of events and the causality relation, it is possible to reconstruct a globally hyperbolic spacetime in a purely order theoretic manner. The ultimate reason for this is that globally hyperbolic spacetimes belong to a category that is equivalent to a special category of domains called interval domains.
The black hole entropy formula applied to local Rindler horizon at each spacetime point has been used in the literature to derive the Einstein field equation as an equation of state of a thermodynamical system of spacetime. In the present paper we argue that due to the key role of causal structure and discrete spacetime in this approach the natural framework is unimodular relativity rather than general relativity. It is shown that the equation of state is trace free unimodular relativity field equation that uniquely determines only the traceless stress tensor. Recent generalization to nonequil…
We study a flat spacetime with a compact spatial dimension and dispute the claim of Bansal, Laing, and Sriharan that a local experiment can determine whether or not an inertial observer is "privileged" in this spacetime.
The simplest variant of gauge gravitation theory in Riemann-Cartan spacetime leading to the solution of the problem of cosmological singularity and dark energy problem is investigated. It is shown that this theory by certain restrictions on indefinite parameters of gravitational Lagrangian in the case of usual gravitating systems leads to Einstein gravitational equations with effective cosmological constant.
We study imbedded hypersurfaces in spacetime whose causal character is allowed to change from point to point. Inherited geometrical structures on these hypersurfaces are defined by two methods: first, the standard rigged connection induced by a rigging vector (a vector not tangent to the hypersurface anywhere); and a second, more physically adapted, where each observer in spacetime induces a new type of connection that we call the rigged metric connection. The generalisation of the Gauss and Codazzi equations are also given. With the above machinery, we attack the problem of matching two space…
We will present a complete set of equations, in the form of an Einstein-Bianchi system, that describe the evolution of generic smooth lattices in spacetime. All 20 independent Riemann curvatures will be evolved in parallel with the leg-lengths of the lattice. We will show that the evolution equations for the curvatures forms a hyperbolic system and that the associated constraints are preserved. This work is a generalisation of our previous paper arXiv:1101.3171 on the Einstein-Bianchi system for the Schwarzschild spacetime to general 3+1 vacuum spacetimes.
The second Bianchi identity can be recast as an evolution equation for the Riemann curvatures. Here we will report on such a system for a vacuum static spherically symmetric spacetime. This is the first of two papers. In the following paper we will extend the ideas developed here to general vacuum spacetimes. In this paper we will demonstrate our ideas on a Schwarzschild spacetime and give detailed numerical results. For suitable choices of lapse function we find that the system gives excellent results with long term stability.
We discuss the generalization of Doubly Special Relativity to a curved de Sitter background. The model has three observer-independent scales, the velocity of light $c$, the radius of curvature of the geometry $α$, and the Planck energy $κ$, and can be realized in a noncommutative position space. It is possible to construct a model exhibiting a duality for the interchange of positions and momenta together with the exchange of $α$ and $κ$.
In the context of Lorentz-Finsler spacetime theories the relativity principle holds at a spacetime point if the indicatrix (observer space) is homogeneous. We point out that in four spacetime dimensions there are just three kinematical models which respect an exact form of the relativity principle and for which all observers agree on the spacetime volume. They have necessarily affine sphere indicatrices. For them every observer which looks at a flash of light emitted by a point would observe, respectively, an expanding (a) sphere, (b) tetrahedron, or (c) cone, with barycenter at the point. The…
Using a constrained formalism for Einstein equations in Dirac gauge, we propose to compute excised quasistationary initial data for black hole spacetimes in full general relativity. Vacuum spacetime settings are numerically constructed by using the isolated horizon formalism; we especially tackle the conformal metric part of our equations, assuming global stationarity. We show that a no-boundary treatment can be used on the horizon for the equation related to the conformal metric. We relate this finding to previous suggestions in the literature, and use our results to assess the widely used co…
The tools developed in a preceding article for interpreting spacetime geometry in terms of all possible space-plus-time splitting approaches are applied to circular orbits in some familiar stationary axisymmetric spacetimes. This helps give a more intuitive picture of their rotational features including spin precession effects, and puts related work of Abramowicz, de Felice, and others on circular orbits in black hole spacetimes into a more general context.
Imaging Signatures of the Israel Junction: Photon Ring Evolution in Dynamical Thin Shell Schwarzschild Spacetimes
Peng Huanwu Center for Fundamental Theory（彭桓武理论物理中心）；Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学近代物理系）；Institute of Fundamental Physics and Quantum Technology, Department of Physics, School of Physical Science and Technology, Ningbo University（宁波大学物理科学与技术学院物理系基础物理与量子技术研究所）
In this contribution, we suggest the approach that geometric concepts ought to be defined in terms of physical operations involving quantum matter. In this way it is expected that some (presumably nocive) idealizations lying deep within the roots of the notion of spacetime might be excluded. In particular, we consider that spacetime can be probed only with physical (and therefore extended) particles, which can be effectively described by coordinates that fail to commute by a term proportional to the spin of the particles.
We derive a general set of acceptable junction conditions for $F(T)$ gravity via the variational principle. The analysis is valid for both the traditional form of $F(T)$ gravity theory as well as the more recently introduced Lorentz covariant theory of Krššák and Saridakis. We find that the general junction conditions derived, when applied to simple cases such as highly symmetric static or time dependent geometries (such as spherical symmetry) imply both the Synge junction conditions as well as the Israel-Sen-Lanczos-Darmois junction conditions of General Relativity. In more complicated scenar…
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the `Lorentzian pedagogy' defended by J.S. Bell in his essay ``How to teach special relativity'', and to explore its consistency with Einstein's thinking from 1905 to 1952. Some remarks are also made in this context on Weyl's philosophy of relativity and his 1918 gauge theory. Finally, it is argued that the Lorentzian pedagogy - which stresses the important connection between kinematics and dynamics - clarifies the role of rods and clocks in general relativity.
We give an exact solution to the gravitational field in the new general relativity. The solution creates Bonnor spacetime. This spacetime describes the gravitational field of a stationary beam of light. The energy and momentum of this solution is calculated using the energy-momentum complex given by Møller in (1978) within the framework of the Weitzenb{\rm $\ddot{o}$}ck spacetime.
An experiment in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is proposed to measure components of the Riemann curvature tensor using atom interferometry. We show that the difference in the quantum phase $Δϕ$ of an atom that can travel along two intersecting geodesics is given by $mR_{0i0j}/\hbar$ times the spacetime volume contained within the geodesics. Our expression for $Δϕ$ also holds for gravitational waves in the long wavelength limit.
A lattice model for four dimensional Euclidean quantum general relativity is proposed for a simplicial spacetime. It is shown how this model can be expressed in terms of a sum over worldsheets of spin networks, and an interpretation of these worldsheets as spacetime geometries is given, based on the geometry defined by spin networks in canonical loop quantized GR. The spacetime geometry has a Planck scale discreteness which arises "naturally" from the discrete spectrum of spins of SU(2) representations (and not from the use of a spacetime lattice). The lattice model of the dynamics is a formal…
The notion of geometrical duality is discussed in the context of both Brans-Dicke theory and general relativity. It is shown that, in some particular solutions, the spacetime singularities that arise in usual Riemannian general relativity may be avoided in its dual representation (Weyl-type general relativity). This dual representation provides a singularity-free picture of the World that is physicaly equivalent to the canonical general relativistic one.
Applying the distributional formalism to study the dynamics of thin shells in general relativity, we regain the junction equations for matching of two spherically symmetric spacetimes separated by a singular hypersurface. In particular, we have shown how to define and insert the relevant sign functions in the junction equations corresponding to the signs of the extrinsic curvature tensor occurred in the Darmois-Israel method.
Three well known exact regular solutions of general relativity (GR) coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics (NED), namely the Maxwellian, Bardeen and Hayward regular spacetimes, which can describe either a regular black hole or a geometry without horizons, have been considered. Relaxation times for the scalar, electromagnetic (EM) and gravitational perturbations of black holes (BHs) and no-horizon spacetimes have been estimated in comparison with the ones of the Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordström (RN) spacetimes. It has been shown that the considered geometries in GR coupled to the NED have nev…
It was recently proposed that deformations of the relativistic symmetry, as those considered in Deformed Special Relativity (DSR), can be seen as the outcome of a measurement theory in the presence of non-negligible (albeit small) quantum gravitational fluctuations [1,2]. In this paper we explicitly consider the case of a spacetime described by a flat metric endowed with stochastic fluctuations and, for a free particle, we show that DSR-like nonlinear relations between the spaces of the measured and classical momenta, can result from the average of the stochastic fluctuations over a scale set …
We present an elastic constitutive model of gravity where we identify physical space with the mid-hypersurface of an elastic hyperplate called the "cosmic fabric" and spacetime with the fabric's world volume. Using a Lagrangian formulation, we show that the fabric's behavior as derived from Hooke's Law is analogous to that of spacetime per the Field Equations of General Relativity. The study is conducted in the limit of small strains, or analogously, in the limit of weak and nearly static gravitational fields. The Fabric's Lagrangian outside of inclusions is shown to have the same form as the …
In this paper, we use the Killing vector method to formulate the de Sitter/Anti-de Sitter invariant special relativity (dS/AdS-SR). Through solving the Einstein equation with $Λ\neq 0$, the basic inertial metric for dS/AdS-SR is determined to be the Beltrami metric $B_{μν}(x)$. The corresponding Killing equations are system of ten simultaneous partial differential equations of first order. Their most general solutions were obtained, and all the ten independent Killing vectors were found out. These results confirm that the Beltrami metric has maximal spacetime symmetry. The ten Killing-Noether …
Recently it has been shown that despite previous claims the cosmological constant affects light bending. In the present article we study light bending and the advance of Mercury's perihelion in the context of the Newtonian limit of Schwarzschild-de Sitter spacetime employing the special relativistic equivalence of mass and energy. In both cases, up to a constant factor, we find the same results as in the full general relativistic treatment of the same phenomena. These approximate and intuitive arguments demonstrate clearly what effects should have been expected from the presence of $Λ$ in the …
We discuss a successful three-dimensional cartesian implementation of the Bona-Massó hyperbolic formulation of the 3+1 Einstein evolution equations in numerical relativity. The numerical code, which we call ``Cactus,'' provides a general framework for 3D numerical relativity, and can include various formulations of the evolution equations, initial data sets, and analysis modules. We show important code tests, including dynamically sliced flat space, wave spacetimes, and black hole spacetimes. We discuss the numerical convergence of each spacetime, and also compare results with previously teste…
We present first results obtained with a 3+1 dimensional adaptive mesh code in numerical general relativity. The adaptive mesh is used in conjunction with a standard ADM code for the evolution of a dynamically sliced Schwarzschild spacetime (geodesic slicing). We argue that adaptive mesh is particularly natural in the context of general relativity, where apart from adaptive mesh refinement for numerical efficiency one may want to use the built in flexibility to do numerical relativity on coordinate patches.
We investigate the interplay and connections between symmetry properties of equations, the interpretation of coordinates, the construction of observables, and the existence of physical relativity principles in spacetime theories. Using the refined notion of an event as a ``point-coincidence'' between scalar fields that completely characterise a spacetime model, we also propose a natural generalisation of the relational local observables that does not require the existence of four everywhere invertible scalar fields. The collection of all point-coincidences forms in generic situations a four-di…
This comment contains a suggestion for a slight modification of Israel's covariant formulation of junction conditions between two spacetimes, placing both sides on equal footing with normals having uniquely defined orientations. The signs of mass energy densities in thin shells at the junction depend not only on the orientations of the normals and it is useful therefore to discuss the sign separately. Calculations gain in clarity by not choosing the orientations in advance. Simple examples illustrate our point and complete previous classifications of spherical thin shells in spherically symmet…
Beetle and Burko recently introduced a background--independent scalar curvature invariant for general relativity that carries information only about the gravitational radiation in generic spacetimes, in cases where such radiation is incontrovertibly defined. In this paper we adopt a formalism that only uses spatial data as they are used in numerical relativity and compute the Beetle--Burko radiation scalar for a number of analytical examples, specifically linearized Einstein--Rosen cylindrical waves, linearized quadrupole waves, the Kerr spacetime, Bowen--York initial data, and the Kasner spac…
We present a number of open problems within general relativity. After a brief introduction to some technical mathematical issues and the famous singularity theorems, we discuss the cosmic censorship hypothesis and the Penrose inequality, the uniqueness of black hole solutions and the stability of Kerr spacetime and the final state conjecture, critical phenomena and the Einstein-Yang--Mills equations, and a number of other problems in classical general relativity. We then broaden the scope and discuss some mathematical problems motivated by quantum gravity, including AdS/CFT correspondence and …
It is shown that in spite of a generally accepted concept, there exist nondiffeomorphic solutions to the Cauchy problem in nonempty spacetime, which implies the necessity for canonical complementary conditions. It is nonlocal quantum jumps that provide a canonical global structure of spacetime manifold and, by the same token, the canonical complementary conditions.
It is plausible that quantum gravity effects may lead us to a description of Nature beyond the framework of special relativity. In this case, either the relativity principle is broken or it is maintained. These two scenarios (a violation or a deformation of special relativity) are very different, both conceptually and phenomenologically. We discuss some of their implications on the description of events for different observers and the notion of spacetime.
We analyse the quantum geometry of 3-dimensional deformed special relativity (DSR) and the notion of spacetime points in such a context, identified with coherent states that minimize the uncertainty relations among spacetime coordinates operators. We construct this system of coherent states in both the Riemannian and Lorentzian case, and study their properties and their geometric interpretation.
This paper elaborates the problem of energy-momentum in the framework of teleparallel equivalent of General Relativity. For this purpose, we consider energy-momentum prescription derived from the integral form of the constraint equations developed in the Hamiltonian formulation of the teleparallel equivalent of General Relativity. We use this technique to investigate energy-momentum of stationary axisymmetric Einstein-Maxwell solutions and cosmic string spacetimes. The angular momentum, gravitational and matter energy-momentum fluxes of these spacetimes are also evaluated. It is concluded that…
Though the main applications of computer simulations in relativity are to astrophysical systems such as black holes and neutron stars, nonetheless there are important applications of numerical methods to the investigation of general relativity as a fundamental theory of the nature of space and time. This paper gives an overview of some of these applications. In particular we cover (i) investigations of the properties of spacetime singularities such as those that occur in the interior of black holes and in big bang cosmology. (ii) investigations of critical behavior at the threshold of black ho…
The central theme of this thesis is the study and analysis of black hole mimickers. The concept of a black hole mimicker is introduced, and various mimicker spacetime models are examined within the framework of classical general relativity. The mimickers examined fall into the classes of regular black holes and traversable wormholes under spherical symmetry. The regular black holes examined can be further categorised as static spacetimes, however the traversable wormhole is allowed to have a dynamic (non-static) throat. Astrophysical observables are calculated for a recently proposed regular b…
We construct regular rotating black hole and no-horizon spacetimes based on the recently introduced spherically symmetric generic regular black hole spacetimes related to electric or magnetic charge under nonlinear electrodynamics coupled to general relativity that for special values of the spacetime parameters reduce to the Bardeen and Hayward spacetimes. We show that the weak and strong energy conditions are violated inside the Cauchy horizons of these generic rotating black holes. We give the boundary between the rotating black hole and no-horizon spacetimes and determine the black hole hor…
In this thesis we consider several aspects of general relativity relating to exact solutions of the Einstein equations. In the first part gravitational plane waves in the Rosen form are investigated, and we develop a formalism for writing down any arbitrary polarisation in this form. In addition to this we have extended this algorithm to an arbitrary number of dimensions, and have written down an explicit solution for a circularly polarized Rosen wave. In the second part a particular, ultra-local limit along an arbitrary timelike geodesic in any spacetime is constructed, in close analogy with …
A new proposal for the notion of spacetime in a relativistic generalization of special relativity based on a modification of the composition law of momenta is presented. Locality of interactions is the principle which defines the spacetime structure for a system of particles. The formulation based on $κ$-Poincaré Hopf algebra is shown to be contained in this framework as a particular example.
We argue that the standard canonical treatment of GR breaks manifest spacetime covariance. We present new variables which carry a reducible representation of gauge transformations and spacetime diffeomorphisms. A proposal is presented for an action designed to realize these symmetries at the canonical level.
Hamiltonian gravity, relying on arbitrary choices of "space," can obscure spacetime symmetries. We present an alternative, manifestly spacetime covariant formulation that nonetheless distinguishes between "spatial" and "temporal" variables. The key is viewing dynamical fields from the perspective of a field of observers -- a unit timelike vector field that also transforms under local Lorentz transformations. On one hand, all fields are spacetime fields, covariant under spacetime symmeties. On the other, when the observer field is normal to a spatial foliation, the fields automatically fall int…
Inspired in metamaterials, we present a covariant mechanics for particles in Kleinian spacetime and show some of its effects, such as time contraction and length dilatation. We present the new expressions for relativistic momentum and energy for a point-like particle. To illustrate the new mechanics, we describe the particle motion under a uniform Newtonian gravitational field. We also revisit the free spin-half particle problem in Kleinian spacetime, discuss some quantum implications, like the constraint on the dispersion relation for Weyl fermions, and adapt a metamaterial analog system to K…
In this work we study Berwald spacetimes and their vacuum dynamics, where the latter are based on a Finsler generalization of the Einstein's equations derived from an action on the unit tangent bundle. In particular, we consider a specific class of spacetimes which are non-flat generalizations of the very special relativity (VSR) line element, to which we refer as very general relativity (VGR). We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for the VGR line element to be of Berwald type. We present two novel examples with the corresponding vacuum field equations: a Finslerian generalization of …
The General Theory of Relativity has been an extremely successful theory, with a well established experimental footing, at least for weak gravitational fields. Its predictions range from the existence of black holes, gravitational radiation to the cosmological models, predicting a primordial beginning, namely the big-bang. All these solutions have been obtained by first considering a plausible distribution of matter, and through the Einstein field equation, the spacetime metric of the geometry is determined. However, one may solve the Einstein field equation in the reverse direction, namely, o…
Einstein's theory of general relativity models the physical universe using spacetimes which satisfy Einstein's gravitational field equations. To date, Einstein's theory has been enormously successful in modeling observed gravitational phenomena, both at the astrophysical and the cosmological levels. The collection of spacetime solutions of Einstein's equations which have been effectively used for modeling the physical universe is a very small subset of the full set of solutions. Among this larger set, there are many spacetimes in which strange phenomena related to time are present: There are s…
It is shown how, within the framework of general relativity and without the introduction of wormholes, it is possible to modify a spacetime in a way that allows a spaceship to travel with an arbitrarily large speed. By a purely local expansion of spacetime behind the spaceship and an opposite contraction in front of it, motion faster than the speed of light as seen by observers outside the disturbed region is possible. The resulting distortion is reminiscent of the ``warp drive'' of science fiction. However, just as it happens with wormholes, exotic matter will be needed in order to generate a…
It is shown how the relation $ds=cdτ$ between the proper distance $s$ and the proper time $τ$ is obtained in general relativity. A general relation in curved spacetime between $dτ$ and $dt$ is given. This relation reduces to the special relativistic one for flat spacetime.
We construct a Dirac equation that is consistent with one of the recently-proposed schemes for a "doubly-special relativity", a relativity with both an observer-independent velocity scale (still naturally identified with the speed-of-light constant) and an observer-independent length/momentum scale (possibly given by the Planck length/momentum). We find that the introduction of the second observer-independent scale only induces a mild deformation of the structure of Dirac spinors. We also show that our modified Dirac equation naturally arises in constructing a Dirac equation in the kappa-Minko…
