3,426 research outputs found
Causal structures and causal boundaries
We give an up-to-date perspective with a general overview of the theory of
causal properties, the derived causal structures, their classification and
applications, and the definition and construction of causal boundaries and of
causal symmetries, mostly for Lorentzian manifolds but also in more abstract
settings.Comment: Final version. To appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit
The harmonic oscillator on Riemannian and Lorentzian configuration spaces of constant curvature
The harmonic oscillator as a distinguished dynamical system can be defined
not only on the Euclidean plane but also on the sphere and on the hyperbolic
plane, and more generally on any configuration space with constant curvature
and with a metric of any signature, either Riemannian (definite positive) or
Lorentzian (indefinite). In this paper we study the main properties of these
`curved' harmonic oscillators simultaneously on any such configuration space,
using a Cayley-Klein (CK) type approach, with two free parameters \ki, \kii
which altogether correspond to the possible values for curvature and signature
type: the generic Riemannian and Lorentzian spaces of constant curvature
(sphere , hyperbolic plane , AntiDeSitter sphere {\bf
AdS}^{\unomasuno} and DeSitter sphere {\bf dS}^{\unomasuno}) appear in this
family, with the Euclidean and Minkowski spaces as flat limits.
We solve the equations of motion for the `curved' harmonic oscillator and
obtain explicit expressions for the orbits by using three different methods:
first by direct integration, second by obtaining the general CK version of the
Binet's equation and third, as a consequence of its superintegrable character.
The orbits are conics with centre at the potential origin in any CK space,
thereby extending this well known Euclidean property to any constant curvature
configuration space. The final part of the article, that has a more geometric
character, presents those results of the theory of conics on spaces of constant
curvature which are pertinent.Comment: 29 pages, 6 figure
Invariants and Infinitesimal Transformations for Contact Sub-Lorentzian Structures on 3-Dimensional Manifolds
In this article we develop some elementary aspects of a theory of symmetry in
sub-Lorentzian geometry. First of all we construct invariants characterizing
isometric classes of sub-Lorentzian contact 3 manifolds. Next we characterize
vector fields which generate isometric and conformal symmetries in general
sub-Lorentzian manifolds. We then focus attention back to the case where the
underlying manifold is a contact 3 manifold and more specifically when the
manifold is also a Lie group and the structure is left-invariant
On the energy functional on Finsler manifolds and applications to stationary spacetimes
In this paper we first study some global properties of the energy functional
on a non-reversible Finsler manifold. In particular we present a fully detailed
proof of the Palais--Smale condition under the completeness of the Finsler
metric. Moreover we define a Finsler metric of Randers type, which we call
Fermat metric, associated to a conformally standard stationary spacetime. We
shall study the influence of the Fermat metric on the causal properties of the
spacetime, mainly the global hyperbolicity. Moreover we study the relations
between the energy functional of the Fermat metric and the Fermat principle for
the light rays in the spacetime. This allows us to obtain existence and
multiplicity results for light rays, using the Finsler theory. Finally the case
of timelike geodesics with fixed energy is considered.Comment: 23 pages, AMSLaTeX. v4 matches the published versio
Generalized Sums over Histories for Quantum Gravity I. Smooth Conifolds
This paper proposes to generalize the histories included in Euclidean
functional integrals from manifolds to a more general set of compact
topological spaces. This new set of spaces, called conifolds, includes
nonmanifold stationary points that arise naturally in a semiclasssical
evaluation of such integrals; additionally, it can be proven that sequences of
approximately Einstein manifolds and sequences of approximately Einstein
conifolds both converge to Einstein conifolds. Consequently, generalized
Euclidean functional integrals based on these conifold histories yield
semiclassical amplitudes for sequences of both manifold and conifold histories
that approach a stationary point of the Einstein action. Therefore sums over
conifold histories provide a useful and self-consistent starting point for
further study of topological effects in quantum gravity. Postscript figures
available via anonymous ftp at black-hole.physics.ubc.ca (137.82.43.40) in file
gen1.ps.Comment: 81pp., plain TeX, To appear in Nucl. Phys.
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