English

A unified framework for photon and massive particle hypersurfaces in stationary spacetimes

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2026-02-13 v1 Differential Geometry

Abstract

We revisit the notion of massive particle hypersurfaces and place it within a unified framework alongside photon hypersurfaces in stationary spacetimes. More precisely, for Killing-invariant timelike hypersurfaces T=R×S0T=\mathbb{R}\times S_0, where S0S_0 is a smooth embedded surface in a spacelike slice SS of the stationary spacetime, we show that TT is a photon hypersurface or a massive particle hypersurface if and only if S0S_0 is totally geodesic with respect to certain associated Finsler structures on the slice: a Randers metric governing null geodesics and a Jacobi--Randers metric governing timelike solutions of the Lorentz force equation at fixed energy and charge-to-mass ratio. We also prove existence and multiplicity results for proper-time parametrized solutions of the Lorentz force equation with fixed energy and charge-to-mass ratio, either connecting a point to a flow line of the Killing vector field or having periodic, non-constant projection on SS.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.11883,
  title  = {A unified framework for photon and massive particle hypersurfaces in stationary spacetimes},
  author = {Erasmo Caponio and Anna valeria Germinario and Antonio Masiello},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.11883},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

22 pages, AMSLaTex