Related papers: On the global existence of time
We discuss some global properties of cosmological spacetimes of de Sitter type, based on results with Lars Andersson obtained in hep-th/0202161. We relate the geometry and topology of conformal infinity to the occurrence of singularities in…
The formulation of gravity theory is considered where space-time is a 4-dimensional surface in flat ten-dimensional space. The possibility of using the "external" time (the time of ambient space) in this approach is investigated. The…
The gravitation equations of the general relativity, written for Riemannian space-time geometry, are extended to the case of arbitrary (non-Riemannian) space-time geometry. The obtained equations are written in terms of the world function…
We show that four-dimensional Lorentzian metrics admitting a global spacelike Lie group of isometries, $G_{1}={\mathbb R}$, which obey the Einstein equations for vacuum and certain types of matter, cannot contain apparent horizons. The…
We consider spherically symmetric spacetimes with matter whose timelike flow is assumed to be shear-free. A number of results on the formation and visibility of spacetime singularities is proven, with the main one being that shear-free…
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…
Minkowski space is the local model of 3 dimensionnal flat spacetimes. Recent progress in the description of globally hyperbolic flat spacetimes showed strong link between Lorentzian geometry and Teichm{\"u}ller space. We notice that…
Irrespective of local conditions imposed on the metric, any extendible spacetime U has a maximal extension containing no closed causal curves outside the chronological past of U. We prove this fact and interpret it as impossibility (in…
The appearance of linear spaces, describing physical quantities by vectors and tensors, is ubiquitous in all of physics, from classical mechanics to the modern notion of local Lorentz invariance. However, as natural as this seems to the…
This article explores the overall geometric manner in which human beings make sense of the world around them by means of their physical theories; in particular, in what are nowadays called pregeometric pictures of Nature. In these, the…
We show that for generic sliced spacetimes global hyperbolicity is equivalent to space completeness under the assumption that the lapse, shift and spatial metric are uniformly bounded. This leads us to the conclusion that simple sliced…
The notion of geometrical duality is discussed in the context of both Brans-Dicke theory and general relativity. It is shown that, in some particular solutions, the spacetime singularities that arise in usual Riemannian general relativity…
In this conference published in 1997 some problems on the geodesics of a Lorentzian manifold concerning causality and infinite-dimensional variational methods, are pointed out. Even though a big progress on many of these questions have been…
I present a brief review on space and time in different periods of physics, and then talk on the nature of space and time from physical arguments. I discuss the ways to test such a new perspective on space and time through searching for…
Is there a number for every bit of spacetime, or is spacetime smooth like the real line? The ultimate fate of a quantum theory of gravity might depend on it. The troublesome infinities of quantum gravity can be cured by assuming that…
In quantum gravity there is no notion of absolute time. Like all other quantities in the theory, the notion of time has to be introduced "relationally", by studying the behavior of some physical quantities in terms of others chosen as a…
How special (or not) is the epoch we are living in? What is the appropriate reference class for embedding the observations made at the present time? How probable -- or else -- is anything we observe in the fulness of time? Contemporary…
We consider an inverse problem for a Lorentzian spacetime $(M,g)$, and show that time measurements, that is, the knowledge of the Lorentzian time separation function on a submanifold $\Sigma\subset M$ determine the $C^\infty$-jet of the…
We discuss the geometry of timelike surfaces (two-dimensional submanifolds) in a Lorentzian manifold and its interpretation in terms of general relativity. A classification of such surfaces is presented which distinguishes four cases of…
The null splitting theorem (proved in math.DG/9909158) is discussed. As an application, a uniqueness theorem for Minkowski space and for de Sitter space associated with the occurrence of null lines (inextendible globally achronal null…