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Related papers: Spacetime distances: an exploration

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Geodesics are used in a wide array of applications in cosmology and astrophysics. However, it is not a trivial task to efficiently calculate exact geodesic distances in an arbitrary spacetime. We show that in spatially flat…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2017-11-29 William J. Cunningham , David Rideout , James Halverson , Dmitri Krioukov

The null distance for Lorentzian manifolds was recently introduced by Sormani and Vega. Under mild assumptions on the time function of the spacetime, the null distance gives rise to an intrinsic, conformally invariant metric that induces…

Differential Geometry · Mathematics 2022-09-01 Brian Allen , Annegret Burtscher

We consider spacetime to be a 4-dimensional differentiable manifold that can be split locally into time and space. No metric, no linear connection are assumed. Matter is described by classical fields/fluids. We distinguish electrically…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2008-11-26 Friedrich W. Hehl , Yuri N. Obukhov

The time separation function (or Lorentzian distance function) is a fundamental object used in Lorentzian geometry. For smooth spacetimes it is known to be lower semicontinuous, and in fact, continuous for globally hyperbolic spacetimes.…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2024-10-02 Eric Ling

What is the analogous notion of Gromov-Hausdorff convergence for sequences of spacetimes? Since a Lorentzian manifold is not inherently a metric space, one cannot simply use the traditional definition. One approach offered by Sormani and…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2023-10-17 Brian Allen

The notion of null distance was introduced by Sormani and Vega as part of a broader program to develop a theory of metric convergence adapted to Lorentzian geometry. Given a time function $\tau$ on a spacetime $(M,g)$, the associated null…

Differential Geometry · Mathematics 2025-09-12 Andrea Nigri

A Lorentzian manifold endowed with a time function, $\tau$, can be converted into a metric space using the null distance, $\hat{d}_\tau$, defined by Sormani and Vega. We show that if the time function is a proper regular cosmological time…

Differential Geometry · Mathematics 2023-01-26 A. Sakovich , C. Sormani

In practical purposes for some geometrical problems in computer science we have as information the coordinates of some finite points in surface instead of the whole body of a surface. The problem arised here is: "How to define a distance…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2012-03-29 Hajar Ghahremani Gol , Asadollah Razavi , Farzad Didehva

We provide a short introduction to ``Lorentzian metric spaces" i.e., spacetimes defined solely in terms of the two-point Lorentzian distance. As noted in previous work, this structure is essentially unique if minimal conditions are imposed,…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2026-01-23 E. Minguzzi

This paper is the first of three in which I study the moduli space of isometry classes of (compact) globally hyperbolic spacetimes (with boundary). I introduce a notion of Gromov-Hausdorff distance which makes this moduli space into a…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2009-11-10 Johan Noldus

In spacetime physics, we frequently need to consider a set of all spaces (`universes') as a whole. In particular, the concept of `closeness' between spaces is essential. However, there has been no established mathematical theory so far…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2009-10-31 Masafumi Seriu

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)…

Differential Geometry · Mathematics 2017-03-07 Christina Sormani , Carlos Vega

We show that finiteness of the Lorentzian distance is equivalent to the existence of generalised time functions with gradient uniformly bounded away from light cones. To derive this result we introduce new techniques to construct and…

Differential Geometry · Mathematics 2017-03-10 Adam Rennie , Ben E. Whale

A theoretical mechanism is devised to determine the large distance physics of spacetime. It is a two dimensional nonlinear model, the lambda model, set to govern the string worldsurface to remedy the failure of string theory. The lambda…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2009-11-07 Daniel Friedan

In this paper, we continue to examine the fundamental basis for the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) metric and its application to cosmology, specifically addressing the question: What is the proper size of the visible universe? There are…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2018-09-26 Fulvio Melia

How should one define metric space notions of convergence for sequences of spacetimes? Since a Lorentzian manifold does not define a metric space directly, the uniform convergence, Gromov-Hausdorff (GH) convergence, and Sormani-Wenger…

Differential Geometry · Mathematics 2025-10-17 Brian Allen

We study the Riemannian distance function from a fixed point (a point-wise target) of Euclidean space in the presence of a compact obstacle bounded by a smooth hypersurface. First, we show that such a function is locally semiconcave with a…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-10-25 Paolo Albano , Vincenzo Basco , Piermarco Cannarsa

In a recent work I showed that the family of smooth steep time functions can be used to recover the order, the topology and the (Lorentz-Finsler) distance of spacetime. In this work I present the main ideas entering the proof of the…

Differential Geometry · Mathematics 2018-02-26 E. Minguzzi

Discrepancies between distance measurements and $\Lambda$CDM predictions reveal notable features in the distance-redshift relation, possibly suggesting the presence of an evolving dark energy component. Given the central role of the…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2025-11-06 David Camarena , Kylar Greene , John Houghteling , Francis-Yan Cyr-Racine

Spacetimes have conventionally been described by a global Lorentzian metric on a differentiable four-manifold. Herein we explore the possibility of spacetimes defined by a connection, which is locally but not globally Levi-Civita. The…

Mathematical Physics · Physics 2008-04-21 Richard Atkins
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