English

Topology Change from Pointlike Sources

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2024-08-07 v2 High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

In this paper we study topology-changing spacetimes occurring from pointlike sources. Following an old idea of Penrose, we will opt for a non-Hausdorff model of topology change in which an initial pointlike source is ``doubled" and allowed to propagate along null rays into an eventual cobordism. By appealing to recent developments in non-Hausdorff differential geometry, we will describe and evaluate gravitational actions on these topology-changing spacetimes. Motivated by analogous results for the Trousers space, we describe a sign convention for Lorentzian angles that will ensure the dampening of our non-Hausdorff topology-changing spacetimes within a two-dimensional path integral for gravity.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2403.04281,
  title  = {Topology Change from Pointlike Sources},
  author = {Yasha Neiman and David O'Connell},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2403.04281},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

43 pages, 9 figures. Ver 2: fixed typos and elaborated on certain points

R2 v1 2026-06-28T15:11:56.310Z