The structure of the b-completion of space-time

Structured space, as a natural generalization of the manifold concept, is defined to be a topological space with a sheaf of real function algebras which are suitably localized and closed with respect to composition with smooth Euclidean functions. Vector fields, differential forms, linear connection and curvature are introduced on structured spaces. It is shown that structured spaces correctly model space-times with singularities. Schmidt's b-boundary of space-time is constructed in the category of structured spaces, and well known difficulties with the b-boundaries of the closed Friedman and Schwarzschild space-times are disentangled. It is argued that the b-boundary of space-time, when considered in the category of structured spaces, can serve as a good definition of classical singularities.     

On Noninertial Frames of Reference

It is shown that on the principle of independence of the velocity of light not only on the speed but also on the acceleration of a source emitting the light, it would be natural to relate the examination of accelerated frames of reference with a line chain bundle à _3,1 (covering structure) constructed over the affine space-time A _3,1 rather than with a metric structure of the space-time continuum A _3,1.     

The topology of geodesically complete space-times

Two theorems are given on the topology of geodesically complete space-times which satisfy the energy condition. Firstly, the condition that a compact embedded 3-manifold in space-time be dentless is defined in terms of causal structure. Then it is shown that a dentless 3-manifold must separate space-time, and that it must enclose a compact portion of space-time. Further, it is shown that if the dentless 3-manifold is homeomorphic toS ³ then the part of space-time that it encloses must be simply connected.     

Degeneracy of the b-Boundary in General Relativity

The b-boundary construction by B. Schmidt is a general way of providing a boundary to a manifold with connection [12]. It has been shown to have undesirable topological properties however. C. J. S. Clarke gave a result showing that for space-times, non-Hausdorffness is to be expected in general [3], but the argument contains some errors. We show that under somewhat different conditions on the curvature, the b-boundary will be non-Hausdorff, and illustrate the degeneracy by applying the conditions to some well known exact solutions of general relativity. Received: 11 June 1999 / Accepted: 30 June 1999     

Gravity and gauge: A new perspective

Realization of the Poincaré groupP ₁₀ as a subgroup ofGL(5,R) that maps a 4-dimensional affine set into itself has been shown to lead to a direct Yang-Mills gauging process. This paper discusses the differences between direct gauge theory forP ₁₀ and previously published works. These differences are fundamental, both physically and mathematically, and lead to marked departures from previous concepts and interpretations. The translation subgroup is correctly gauged; the metric structure and metric compatibility are derived from the gauging process rather than assumed; spin structures are automatically incorporated in a consistent manner; the local holonomy group is shown to be the component of the Lorentz group connected to the identity; the geometric analog of Yang-Mills minimal coupling precludes dependence of the free gauge field Lagranian on torsion; and the theory reduces exactly to general relativity when the momentumenergy complex is symmetric and all matter fields are spin-free. Gravitational effects on neutral test particles are shown to arise from the compensating 1-forms for local action of Lorentz boosts. The compensating 1-forms for local action of the translation subgroup may be interpreted as space-time dislocations, while the compensating 1-forms for the rotation subgroup can be viewed as space-time disclinations. Unfortunately, there are no clear physical meanings that can be ascribed to space-time dislocations or disclinations.     

Alternative models of the real number line in physics

Mathematicians have shown that alternative models of the real number line exist, which have all properties of the usual real numbers (a complete ordered field). Since our conception of metric distances in space-time can be put in one-to-one relation with our conception of the real number line, if alternative models exist, it becomes a matter for experiment which model nature has chosen for physical space-time. We consider one such model in which ordinary real numbers are replaced by random variables and show that the model satisfies the 11 axioms of a complete ordered field. This model then is used to model metric distances in physical space-time and to explore the physical implications for the propagation of light. A nice feature of the model is that it provides a new conceptual framework for building a constant with dimensions of length into space-time. The Mössbauer effect restricts this fundamental length to be less than 10^–24 cm.     

Quantized space-time,torsion, and magnetic monopoles

Within the tetrad formalism we introduce quantized space-time in the curvilinear case by using general coordinate transformations with noncommuting terms. Fermion and boson fields are studied and the affine connection is also defined in this space. It is shown that space-time torsion and magnetic monopoles appear as consequences of the theory with quantized space-time at small distances. This method may open a new way of understanding topological structure of space-time.     

Group deformations and relativity

A theory of deformation (homcomorphism but non-isomorphism) of topological groups is developed. In particular, a theory of deformation of subgroups structure is considered. The whole formalism is based on conceptions of holonomicity and relative geometry.A field is postulated to deform the symmetry group of a free physical system. It is shown that the classical fields deform the Poincare group. Thanks to this fact, gravitation appears as space-time curvature (non-holonomicity of the Lorentz subgroup mapping); and electromagnetism reveals itself by space-time torsion (non-holonomicity of the translation subgroup mapping). From physically evident premises it follows that space-time also has a torsion in the rotating and accelerated systems of reference.     

The relationship between field theory in the simplest space-times with a nontrivial topology and field theory at a finite temperature

It is shown that the main results of papers dealing with quantum field theory in space-time with topology S¹ × R³ and in flat space-time with parallel conducting plates can be obtained from field theory at a finite temperature. The new consequences of this fact are discussed.     

Einstein, Wigner and Feynman: From E=mc 2 to Feynman’s decoherence via Wigner’s little groups

The 20th-century physics starts with Einstein and ends with Feynman. Einstein introduced the Lorentz-covariant world with E=mc ². Feynman observed that fast-moving hadrons consist of partons which interact incoherently with external signals. If quarks and partons are the same entities observed in different Lorentz frames, the question then is why partons are incoherent while quarks are coherent. This is the most puzzling question Feynman left for us to solve. In this report, we discuss Wigner’s role in settling this question. Einstein’s E=mc ², which takes the form $E = \sqrt {m^2 + p^2 } $ , unifies the energy-momentum relations for massive and massless particles, but it does not take into account internal space-time structure of relativistic particles. It is pointed out Wigner’s 1939 paper on the inhomogeneous Lorentz group defines particle spin and gauge degrees of freedom in the Lorentz-covariant world. Within the Wigner framework, it is shown possible to construct the internal space-time structure for hadrons in the quark model. It is then shown that the quark model and the parton model are two different manifestations of the same covariant entity. It is shown therefore that the lack of coherence in Feynman’s parton picture is an effect of the Lorentz covariance.     

Geometric algebra and star products on the phase space

Superanalysis can be deformed with a fermionic star product into a Clifford calculus that is equivalent to geometric algebra. With this multivector formalism it is then possible to formulate Riemannian geometry and an inhomogeneous generalization of exterior calculus. Moreover, it is shown here how symplectic and Poisson geometry fit in this context. The application of this formalism together with the bosonic star product formalism of deformation quantization leads then on space and space-time to a natural appearance of spin structures and on phase space to BRST structures that were found in the path integral formulation of classical mechanics. Furthermore it will be shown that Poincaré and Lie-Poisson reduction can be formulated in this formalism.     

Tetrad symmetries

It is shown that ifG is a subgroup of the group of motions of a given space-time then a tetrad can be chosen which is symmetric under the subgroup if and only if the rank of the generators ofG is equal to the order ofG. As an example such a tetrad is constructed for the TypeN twisting empty space-time admitting a two-parameter group of motions.     

A geometrical interpretation of parity violation in gravity with torsion

In a space-time with torsion, the action for the gravitational field can be extended with a parity-violating piece. We show how to obtain such a piece from geometry itself, by suitably modifying the affine connection so as to include a pseudo-tensorial part. The merit of such an approach is that it provides one with a consistent method for incorporating parity-violation in the Lagrangians for matter fields with arbitrary spin in a space-time background with torsion.     

Limits on inflationary models of the universe

It is shown that there are severe limits on any model in which the universe undergoes a period of exponential expansion in the early stages. If one requires that the exponential expansion is long enough to account for the spatial flatness of the universe and that it should not create larger density fluctuations than are observed, it follows that the Hubble constant during the exponential expansion cannot be greater than 6 × 10^?5 of the Planck mass. This rules out all models in which the Hubble constant is of the order of the Planck mass. It is shown that one can satisfy the limits with a model containing a massive scalar field if the mass of the field is less than about 10¹⁴ GeV.     

Infinite sets of conservation laws for linear and nonlinear field equations

The relation between an infinite set of conservation laws of a linear field equation and the enveloping algebra of the space-time symmetry group is established. It is shown that each symmetric element of the enveloping algebra of the space-time symmetry group of a linear field equation generates a one-parameter group of symmetries of the field equation. The cases of the Maxwell and Dirac equations are studied in detail. Then it is shown that (at least in the sense of a power series in the coupling constant) the conservation laws of the linear case can be deformed to conservation laws of a nonlinear field equation which is obtained from the linear one by adding a nonlinear term invariant under the group of space-time symmetries. As an example, our method is applied to the Korteweg-de Vries equation and to the massless Thirring model.     

Affine connection structure of the charged symplectic 2-form

It is shown that the charged symplectic form in Hamiltonian dynamics of classical charged particles in electromagnetic fields defines a generalized affine connection on an affine frame bundle associated with spacetime. Conversely, a generalized affine connection can be used to construct a symplectic 2-form if the associated linear connection is torsion-free and the antisymmetric part of theR ^4* translational connection is locally derivable from a potential. Hamiltonian dynamics for classical charged particles in combined gravitational and electromagnetic fields can therefore be reformulated as aP(4)=O(1, 3)R ^4* geometric theory with phase space the affine cotangent bundleAT ^* M of spacetime. The sourcefree Maxwell equations are reformulated as a pair of geometrical conditions on the ^4* curvature that are exactly analogous to the source-free Einstein equations.     

Poincaré引力规范场和1/2自旋粒子的运动

木文以Poinaré群作为引力规范群,在有挠率和曲率的空间中,讨论了当引力拉氏量包含场强的线性项与二次项时体系的运动方程,指出球对称真空静引力场方程在“宏观”极限下可以得到Schwarzchild解,因此它与目前关于广义相对论的实验验证是一致的,但在“微观”极限下,方程预示着一种新的短程作用,讨论了自旋1/2的粒子作为检测粒子在这种球对称真空静场中的运动,指出运动方程只与仿射联络的黎曼部分有关,并和广义相对论的相应方程具有同样的形式。 关键词：     

Local extensions in singular space-times

A space-time has a local extension through a point on its b-boundary if and only if an appropriate number of covariant derivatives of the Riemann tensor have limiting values on a curve ending at the boundary-point, measured in a parallely propagated tetrad. The extension has the same differentiability as the space-time if the curve is reasonable in a well-defined sense.Work supported by a fellowship under the European Programme of the Royal Society at the I. Institut für theoretische Physik, University of Hamburg.     

Null cut loci of spacelike surfaces

The null cut locus of a spacelike submanifold of codimension 2 in a space-time is defined. In globally hyperbolic space-times, it is shown that the future (past) null cut locusc _n ⁺ (H) [c _n ^- (H)] of a compact, acausal, spacelike submanifoldH of codimension 2 is a closed subset of the space-time, and each pointx c _n ⁺ (H) is either a focal point ofH along some future-directed null geodesic meetingH orthogonally or there exist at least two null geodesics fromH tox, realizing the distance betweenH andx or both. Also, it can be shown that the assumptions of the Penrose's singularity theorem for open globally hyperbolic space-times may be weakened to the space-times which are conformal to an open subset of an open globally hyperbolic space-time.This study is based on Chapter 3 of the author's Ph.D. thesis.