English

Completeness conditions for spacetimes with low-regularity metrics

Differential Geometry 2026-02-04 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology Mathematical Physics Metric Geometry math.MP

Abstract

We extend Beem's three completeness notions -- finite compactness, timelike Cauchy completeness, and Condition A -- originally defined for spacetimes, to Lorentzian length spaces and study their relationships. We prove that finite compactness implies timelike Cauchy completeness and that timelike Cauchy completeness implies Condition A for globally hyperbolic Lorentzian length spaces. Furthermore, for globally hyperbolic C1C^{1}-spacetimes, we establish the equivalence of the three conditions assuming the causally non-branching and non-intertwining conditions, which in fact imply the continuity of the causal exponential map. These results can be regarded as a Hopf-Rinow type theorem for low-regularity Lorentzian geometry. The appendix presents examples of C1C^{1}-spacetimes -- where geodesic uniqueness may fail -- in which causal geodesics nevertheless behave well, illustrating the scope of our results.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2511.07867,
  title  = {Completeness conditions for spacetimes with low-regularity metrics},
  author = {Keita Takahashi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.07867},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

18 pages, Revised version. Assumptions in the main theorem have been weakened. References added and text clarified

R2 v1 2026-07-01T07:31:17.780Z