Related papers: Chronological null complete spacetimes admit a glo…
We prove that causal maximizers in $C^{0,1}$ spacetimes are either timelike or null. This question was posed in [17] since bubbling regions in $C^{0,\alpha}$ spacetimes ($\alpha <1$) can produce causal maximizers that contain a segment…
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 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…
Spacetimes with collisionless matter evolving from data on a compact Cauchy surface with hyperbolic symmetry are shown to be timelike and null geodesically complete in the expanding direction, provided the data satisfy a certain size…
Reasonable spacetimes are non-compact and of dimension larger than two. We show that these spacetimes are globally hyperbolic if and only if the causal diamonds are compact. That is, there is no need to impose the causality condition, as it…
A classical result in Lorentzian geometry states that a strongly causal spacetime is globally hyperbolic if and only if the Lorentzian distance is finite valued for every metric choice in the conformal class. It is proven here that a…
The causal spacetimes admitting a covariantly constant null vector provide a connection between relativistic and non-relativistic physics. We explore this relationship in several directions. We start proving a formula which relates the…
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…
Examples are given of the creation of closed timelike curves by choices of coordinate identifications. Following G\"odel's prescription, it is seen that flat spacetime can produce closed timelike curves with structure similar to that of…
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…
We identify certain general geometric conditions on a foliation of a spacetime (M,g) by timelike curves that will impede the existence of null geodesic lines, especially if (M,g) possesses a compact Cauchy hypersurface. The absence of such…
The spacetime of Ho and Weiler [Phys. Rev. D {\bf 87}, 045004 (2013)] supposedly admitting closed timelike curves (CTCs) is flat Minkowski spacetime with a compactified coordinate and can only contain CTCs if the compact direction is chosen…
The existence of a global time is often taken for granted but should instead be considered as a matter of investigation. By using the tools of global Lorentzian geometry I show that, under physically reasonable conditions, the impossibility…
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 use techniques of quantum information theory to analyze the quantum causal histories approach to quantum gravity. We show that while it is consistent to introduce closed timelike curves (CTCs), they cannot generically carry independent…
Given a time function $\tau$ on a spacetime $M$, we define a `null distance function', $\hat{d}_\tau$, built from and closely related to the causal structure of $M$. In basic models with timelike $\nabla \tau$, we show that 1)…
For a smooth spacetime $X$, based on the timelike homotopy classes of its timelike paths, we define a topology on $X$ that refines the Alexandrov topology and always coincides with the manifold topology. The space of timelike or causal…
We review a theorem of Gao-Wald on a kind of a gravitational "time delay" effect in null geodesically complete spacetimes under NEC and NGC, and we observe that it is not valid anymore throughout its statement, as well as a conclusion that…
We consider a class of globally hyperbolic space-times with "expanding singularities". Under suitable assumptions we show that no $C^0$-extensions across a compact boundary exist, while the boundary must be null wherever differentiable…
A new concept analogous to global hyperbolicity is introduced, based on test fields. It is shown that the space-times termed here ``curve integrable'' are globally hyperbolic in this new sense, and a plausibility argument is given…