2 research outputs found
Linking and causality in globally hyperbolic spacetimes
The linking number is defined if link components are zero homologous.
Our affine linking invariant generalizes to the case of linked
submanifolds with arbitrary homology classes. We apply to the study of
causality in Lorentz manifolds. Let be a spacelike Cauchy surface in a
globally hyperbolic spacetime . The spherical cotangent bundle
is identified with the space of all null geodesics in
Hence the set of null geodesics passing through a point gives an
embedded -sphere in called the sky of Low observed
that if the link is nontrivial, then are causally
related. This motivated the problem (communicated by Penrose) on the Arnold's
1998 problem list to apply link theory to the study of causality. The spheres
are isotopic to fibers of They are nonzero
homologous and is undefined when is closed, while is well defined. Moreover, if is not an
odd-dimensional rational homology sphere. We give a formula for the increment
of \alk under passages through Arnold dangerous tangencies. If is
such that takes values in and is conformal to having all
the timelike sectional curvatures nonnegative, then are causally
related if and only if . We show that in
nonrefocussing are causally unrelated iff can be deformed
to a pair of -fibers of by an isotopy through skies. Low
showed that if (\ss, g) is refocussing, then is compact. We show that the
universal cover of is also compact.Comment: We added: Theorem 11.5 saying that a Cauchy surface in a refocussing
space time has finite pi_1; changed Theorem 7.5 to be in terms of conformal
classes of Lorentz metrics and did a few more changes. 45 pages, 3 figures. A
part of the paper (several results of sections 4,5,6,9,10) is an extension
and development of our work math.GT/0207219 in the context of Lorentzian
geometry. The results of sections 7,8,11,12 and Appendix B are ne
Invariants of an Apparent Contour
4noThe aim of this chapter is to illustrate some interesting invariants of apparent contours and labelled apparent contours. These invariants can be numbers, groups, polynomials; invariance here means that the they are insensitive to certain transformations, that will be specified case by case.nonenoneBellettini, Giovanni; Beorchia, Valentina; Paolini, Maurizio; Pasquarelli, FrancoBellettini, Giovanni; Beorchia, Valentina; Paolini, Maurizio; Pasquarelli, Franc