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We construct a class of analytic solutions with two free parameters to the five-dimensional Einstein field equations, which represents the collision of two timelike 3-branes. We study the local and global properties of the spacetime, and…
The paper elucidates the physical basis of experimental results on superluminal signal velocity. It will be made plausible that superluminal signals do not violate the principle of causality but they can shorten the luminal vacuum time span…
We discuss the usual account of causal structure that relies on the temporal precedence constraint between cause-effect pairs. In particular, we consider the subtle interplay between local and global characters of time and causality encoded…
By relating and ordering events, causality constitutes a pivotal feature of our world. On the one hand, there are information-theoretic notions of causality defined in terms of the information processing ability of agents and on the other…
A new general procedure to construct realistic spacetimes is introduced. It is based on the null congruence on a time-oriented Lorentzian manifold associated to a certain timelike vector field. As an application, new examples of stably…
We demonstrate how one can distinguish a curved 4-dimensional spacetime from a flat one, when it is possible, relying only on the causality relations between events. It is known that it is possible only for spacetimes that are not…
We study the causal structure of a class of weakly nonlocal gravitational theories (eventually coupled to matter) that are compatible with perturbative unitarity and finiteness at quantum level. In particular, we show that in nonlocal…
We study chronology protection in stationary, rotationally symmetric spacetimes in 2+1 dimensional gravity, focusing especially on the case of negative cosmological constant. We show that in such spacetimes closed timelike curves must…
We consider globally hyperbolic spacetimes with compact Cauchy surfaces in a setting compatible with the presence of a positive cosmological constant. More specifically, for 3+1 dimensional spacetimes which satisfy the null energy condition…
The topology of the causal boundary for standard static spacetimes--spacetimes time-invariantly conformal to a metric product of the Lorentz line and a Riemannian manifold--is studied in depth. As this is given in terms of a set of…
I argue that there are no physical singularities in space-time. Singular space-time models do not belong to the ontology of the world, because of a simple reason: they are concepts, defective solutions of Einstein's field equations. I…
The initial value problem is well-defined on a class of spacetimes broader than the globally hyperbolic geometries for which existence and uniqueness theorems are traditionally proved. Simple examples are the time-nonorientable spacetimes…
We examine closed timelike curves (CTCs) and "effective" superluminal travel in a spacetime containing naked line singularities, which we call "wires". Each wire may be straight-line singularity or a ring singularity. The Weak Energy…
We apply the causal interpretation of quantum mechanics to homogeneous quantum cosmology and show that the quantum theory is independent of any time-gauge choice and there is no issue of time. We exemplify this result by studying a…
In general relativity, time functions are crucial objects whose existence and properties are intimately tied to the causal structure of a spacetime and also to the initial value formulation of the Einstein equations. In this work we…
General Relativity traces the evolution of our Universe back to a Big Bang singularity. To probe physics before the singularity -- if indeed there is a ``before'' -- we must turn to quantum gravity. The Causal Set approach to quantum…
Within the low-energy effective field theories of QED and gravity, the low-energy speed of light or that of gravitational waves can typically be mildly superluminal in curved spacetimes. Related to this, small scattering time advances…
We construct a class of spherically symmetric collapse models in which a naked singularity may develop as the end state of collapse. The matter distribution considered has negative radial and tangential pressures, but the weak energy…
Time is absolute in standard quantum theory and dynamical in general relativity. The combination of both theories into a theory of quantum gravity leads therefore to a "problem of time". In my essay I shall investigate those consequences…
It is proved that in a distinguishing spacetime the horismos relation E^+=J^+\I^+ generates the causal relation J^+. In other words two causally related events are joined by a chain of horismotically related events, or again, the causal…