Related papers: Causal geometries and third-order ordinary differe…

We provide five examples of conformal geometries which are naturally associated with ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The first example describes a one-to-one correspondence between the Wuenschmann class of 3rd order ODEs considered…

A change of spatial topology in a causal, compact spacetime cannot occur when the metric is globally Lorentzian. One can however construct a causal metric from a Riemannian metric and a Morse function on the background cobordism manifold,…

This article is concerned with causal structures, which are defined as a field of tangentially non-degenerate projective hypersurfaces in the projectivized tangent bundle of a manifold. The local equivalence problem of causal structures on…

We study invariant properties of $5$-dimensional para-CR structures whose Levi form is degenerate in precisely one direction and which are $2$-nondegenerate. We realize that two, out of three, primary (basic) para-CR invariants of such…

We explore the different geometric structures that can be constructed from the class of pairs of 2nd order PDE's that satisfy the condition of a vanishing generalized W\"{u}nschmann invariant. This condition arises naturally from the…

Using Cartan's equivalence method for point transformations we obtain from first principles the conformal geometry associated with third order ODEs and a special class of PDEs in two dimensions. We explicitly construct the null tetrads of a…

We study discrete Lorentzian spectral geometry by investigating to what extent causal sets can be identified through a set of geometric invariants such as spectra. We build on previous work where it was shown that the spectra of certain…

We first show how, from the general 3rd order ODE of the form z'''=F(z,z',z'',s), one can construct a natural Lorentzian conformal metric on the four-dimensional space (z,z',z'',s). When the function F(z,z',z'',s) satisfies a special…

The theory of noncommutative geometry provides an interesting mathematical background for developing new physical models. In particular, it allows one to describe the classical Standard Model coupled to Euclidean gravity. However,…

The causality structure of two-dimensional manifolds with degenerate metrics is analysed in terms of global solutions of the massless wave equation. Certain novel features emerge. Despite the absence of a traditional Lorentzian Cauchy…

The equivalence problem for second order ODEs given modulo point transformations is solved in full analogy with the equivalence problem of nondegenerate 3-dimensional CR structures. This approach enables an analog of the Feffereman metrics…

A tensor invariant is defined on a quaternionic contact manifold in terms of the curvature and torsion of the Biquard connection involving derivatives up to third order of the contact form. This tensor, called quaternionic contact conformal…

We study the second order invariants of a Lorentzian surface in $\mathbb{R}^{2,2},$ and the curvature hyperbolas associated to its second fundamental form. Besides the four natural invariants, new invariants appear in some degenerate…

We address the problem of local geometry of third order ODEs modulo contact, point and fibre-preserving transformations of variables. Several new and already known geometries are described in a uniform manner by the Cartan method of…

In this note we give an alternative geometrical derivation of the results recently presented by Garcia-Godinez, Newman and Silva-Ortigoza in [1] on the class of all two-dimensional riemannian and lorentzian metrics from 2nd order ODEs which…

This is the second in a series of papers where we prove a conjecture of Deser and Schwimmer regarding the algebraic structure of ``global conformal invariants''; these are defined to be conformally invariant integrals of geometric scalars.…

We define and study a new kind of relation between two diffeomorphic Lorentzian manifolds called {\em causal relation}, which is any diffeomorphism characterized by mapping every causal vector of the first manifold onto a causal vector of…

We propose a formulation of a Lorentzian quantum geometry based on the framework of causal fermion systems. After giving the general definition of causal fermion systems, we deduce space-time as a topological space with an underlying causal…

In this paper we study pseudo-Riemannian spaces with a degenerate curvature structure i.e. there exists a continuous family of metrics having identical polynomial curvature invariants. We approach this problem by utilising an idea coming…

We examine the variational and conformal structures of higher order theories of gravity which are derived from a metric-connection Lagrangian that is an arbitrary function of the curvature invariants. We show that the constrained first…