Completeness conditions for spacetimes with low-regularity metrics
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 -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 -spacetimes -- where geodesic uniqueness may fail -- in which causal geodesics nevertheless behave well, illustrating the scope of our results.
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