English

A criterion for compatibility of conformal and projective structures

Differential Geometry 2015-10-02 v1 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

In a space-time, a conformal structure is defined by the distribution of light-cones. Geodesics are traced by freely falling particles, and the collection of all unparameterized geodesics determines the projective structure of the space-time. The article contains a formulation of the necessary and sufficient conditions for these structures to be compatible, i.e. to come from a metric tensor which is then unique up to a constant factor. The theorem applies to all dimensions and signatures.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1302.2329,
  title  = {A criterion for compatibility of conformal and projective structures},
  author = {Vladimir S. Matveev and Andrzej Trautman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1302.2329},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

5 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-21T23:23:49.055Z