The Causal Boundary of spacetimes revisited

We present a new development of the causal boundary of spacetimes, originally introduced by Geroch, Kronheimer and Penrose. Given a strongly causal spacetime (or, more generally, a chronological set), we reconsider the GKP ideas to construct a family of completions with a chronology and topology extending the original ones. Many of these completions present undesirable features, like those appeared in previous approaches by other authors. However, we show that all these deficiencies are due to the attachment of an ``excessively big'' boundary. In fact, a notion of ``completion with minimal boundary'' is then introduced in our family such that, when we restrict to these minimal completions, which always exist, all previous objections disappear. The optimal character of our construction is illustrated by a number of satisfactory properties and examples.Comment: 37 pages, 10 figures; Definition 6.1 slightly modified; multiple minor changes; one figure added and another replace

Eternity and the cosmological constant

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the stability of interacting matter in the presence of a cosmological constant. Using an approach based on the heat equation, no imaginary part is found for the effective potential in the presence of a fixed background, which is the n-dimensional sphere or else an analytical continuation thereof, which is explored in some detail.Comment: 45 pages, 6 figure

The causal boundary of wave-type spacetimes

A complete and systematic approach to compute the causal boundary of wave-type spacetimes is carried out. The case of a 1-dimensional boundary is specially analyzed and its critical appearance in pp-wave type spacetimes is emphasized. In particular, the corresponding results obtained in the framework of the AdS/CFT correspondence for holography on the boundary, are reinterpreted and very widely generalized. Technically, a recent new definition of causal boundary is used and stressed. Moreover, a set of mathematical tools is introduced (analytical functional approach, Sturm-Liouville theory, Fermat-type arrival time, Busemann-type functions).Comment: 41 pages, 1 table. Included 4 new figures, and some small modifications. To appear in JHE

On the Singularity Structure and Stability of Plane Waves

We describe various aspects of plane wave backgrounds. In particular, we make explicit a simple criterion for singularity by establishing a relation between Brinkmann metric entries and diffeomorphism-invariant curvature information. We also address the stability of plane wave backgrounds by analyzing the fluctuations of generic scalar modes. We focus our attention on cases where after fixing the light-cone gauge the resulting world sheet fields appear to have negative "mass terms". We nevertheless argue that these backgrounds may be stable.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figur

The averaged tensors of the relative energy-momentum and angular momentum in general relativity and some their applications

There exist at least a few different kind of averaging of the differences of the energy-momentum and angular momentum in normal coordinates {\bf NC(P)} which give tensorial quantities. The obtained averaged quantities are equivalent mathematically because they differ only by constant scalar dimensional factors. One of these averaging was used in our papers [1-8] giving the {\it canonical superenergy and angular supermomentum tensors}. In this paper we present another averaging of the differences of the energy-momentum and angular momentum which gives tensorial quantities with proper dimensions of the energy-momentum and angular momentum densities. But these averaged relative energy-momentum and angular momentum tensors, closely related to the canonical superenergy and angular supermomentum tensors, {\it depend on some fundamental length $L>0$}. The averaged relative energy-momentum and angular momentum tensors of the gravitational field obtained in the paper can be applied, like the canonical superenergy and angular supermomentum tensors, to {\it coordinate independent} analysis (local and in special cases also global) of this field. We have applied the averaged relative energy-momentum tensors to analyze vacuum gravitational energy and momentum and to analyze energy and momentum of the Friedman (and also more general) universes. The obtained results are very interesting, e.g., the averaged relative energy density is {\it positive definite} for the all Friedman universes.Comment: 30 pages, minor changes referring to Kasner universe

Lodged in the throat: Internal infinities and AdS/CFT

In the context of AdS3/CFT2, we address spacetimes with a certain sort of internal infinity as typified by the extreme BTZ black hole. The internal infinity is a null circle lying at the end of the black hole's infinite throat. We argue that such spacetimes may be described by a product CFT of the form CFT-L * CFT-R, where CFT-R is associated with the asymptotically AdS boundary while CFT-L is associated with the null circle. Our particular calculations analyze the CFT dual of the extreme BTZ black hole in a linear toy model of AdS3/CFT2. Since the BTZ black hole is a quotient of AdS3, the dual CFT state is a corresponding quotient of the CFT vacuum state. This state turns out to live in the aforementioned product CFT. We discuss this result in the context of general issues of AdS/CFT duality and entanglement entropy.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures; v2 - some typos corrected, minor revision

Einstein energy associated with the Friedmann -Robertson -Walker metric

Following Einstein's definition of Lagrangian density and gravitational field energy density (Einstein, A., Ann. Phys. Lpz., 49, 806 (1916); Einstein, A., Phys. Z., 19, 115 (1918); Pauli, W., {\it Theory of Relativity}, B.I. Publications, Mumbai, 1963, Trans. by G. Field), Tolman derived a general formula for the total matter plus gravitational field energy ($P_0$) of an arbitrary system (Tolman, R.C., Phys. Rev., 35(8), 875 (1930); Tolman, R.C., {\it Relativity, Thermodynamics & Cosmology}, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1962)); Xulu, S.S., arXiv:hep-th/0308070 (2003)). For a static isolated system, in quasi-Cartesian coordinates, this formula leads to the well known result $P_0 = \int \sqrt{-g} (T_0^0 - T_1^1 -T_2^2 -T_3^3) ~d^3 x$, where $g$ is the determinant of the metric tensor and $T^a_b$ is the energy momentum tensor of the {\em matter}. Though in the literature, this is known as "Tolman Mass", it must be realized that this is essentially "Einstein Mass" because the underlying pseudo-tensor here is due to Einstein. In fact, Landau -Lifshitz obtained the same expression for the "inertial mass" of a static isolated system without using any pseudo-tensor at all and which points to physical significance and correctness of Einstein Mass (Landau, L.D., and Lifshitz, E.M., {\it The Classical Theory of Fields}, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 2th ed., 1962)! For the first time we apply this general formula to find an expression for $P_0$ for the Friedmann- Robertson -Walker (FRW) metric by using the same quasi-Cartesian basis. As we analyze this new result, physically, a spatially flat model having no cosmological constant is suggested. Eventually, it is seen that conservation of $P_0$ is honoured only in the a static limit.Comment: By mistake a marginally different earlier version was loaded, now the journal version is uploade

Black Hole Interaction Energy

The interaction energy between two black holes at large separation distance is calculated. The first term in the expansion corresponds to the Newtonian interaction between the masses. The second term corresponds to the spin-spin interaction. The calculation is based on the interaction energy defined on the two black holes initial data. No test particle approximation is used. The relation between this formula and cosmic censorship is discussed.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, LaTeX2

Quasi-local Energy for Spherically Symmetric Spacetimes

We present two complementary approaches for determining the reference for the covariant Hamiltonian boundary term quasi-local energy and test them on spherically symmetric spacetimes. On the one hand, we isometrically match the 2-surface and extremize the energy. This can be done in two ways, which we call programs I (without constraint) and II (with additional constraints). On the other hand, we match the orthonormal 4-frames of the dynamic and the reference spacetimes. Then, if we further specify the observer by requiring the reference displacement to be the timelike Killing vector of the reference, the result is the same as program I, and the energy can be positive, zero, or even negative. If, instead, we require that the Lie derivatives of the two-area along the displacement vector in both the dynamic and reference spacetimes to be the same, the result is the same as program II, and it satisfies the usual criteria: the energies are non-negative and vanish only for Minkowski (or anti-de Sitter) spacetime.Comment: 16 pages, no figure

Energy-Momentum Localization for a Space-Time Geometry Exterior to a Black Hole in the Brane World

In general relativity one of the most fundamental issues consists in defining a generally acceptable definition for the energy-momentum density. As a consequence, many coordinate-dependent definitions have been presented, whereby some of them utilize appropriate energy-momentum complexes. We investigate the energy-momentum distribution for a metric exterior to a spherically symmetric black hole in the brane world by applying the Landau-Lifshitz and Weinberg prescriptions. In both the aforesaid prescriptions, the energy thus obtained depends on the radial coordinate, the mass of the black hole and a parameter $\lambda_{0}$, while all the momenta are found to be zero. It is shown that for a special value of the parameter $\lambda_{0}$, the Schwarzschild space-time geometry is recovered. Some particular and limiting cases are also discussed.Comment: 10 pages, sections 1 and 3 slightly modified, references modified and adde