On the existence of closed timelike geodesics in compact spacetimes

In [19], Tipler has shown that a compact spacetime having a regular globally hyperbolic covering space with compact Cauchy surfaces necessarily contains a closed timelike geodesic. The restriction to compact spacetimes with just regular globally hyperbolic coverings (i.e., the Cauchy surfaces are not required to be compact) is still an open question. Here, we shall answer this question negatively by providing examples of compact flat Lorentz space forms without closed timelike geodesics, and shall give some criterion for the existence of such geodesics. More generally, we will show that in a compact spacetime having a regular globally hyperbolic covering, each free timelike homotopy class determined by a central deck transformation must contain a closed timelike geodesic. Whether or not a compact flat spacetime contains closed nonspacelike geodesics is, as far as we know, an open question. We shall answer this question affirmatively. We shall also introduce the notion of timelike injectivity radius for a spacetime relative to a free timelike homotopy class and shall show that it is finite whenever the corresponding deck transformation is central. Received: 9 November 1999; in final form: 19 September 2000 / Published online: 25 June 2001     

Time Flat Surfaces and the Monotonicity of the Spacetime Hawking Mass II

In this sequel paper, we give a shorter, second proof of the monotonicity of the Hawking mass for time flat surfaces under spacelike uniformly area expanding flows in spacetimes that satisfy the dominant energy condition. We also include a third proof which builds on a known formula and describe a class of sufficient conditions of divergence type for the monotonicity of the Hawking mass. These flows of surfaces may have connections to the problem in general relativity of bounding the total mass of a spacetime from below by the quasi-local mass of spacelike 2-surfaces in the spacetime.     

Triangulations and Volume Form on Moduli Spaces of Flat Surfaces

In this paper, we study the moduli spaces of flat surfaces with cone singularities verifying the following property: there exists a union of disjoint geodesic tree on the surface such that the complement is a translation surface. Those spaces can be viewed as deformations of the moduli spaces of translation surfaces in the space of flat surfaces. We prove that such spaces are quotients of flat complex affine manifolds by a group acting properly discontinuously, and preserving a parallel volume form. Translation surfaces can be considered as a special case of flat surfaces with erasing forest, in this case, it turns out that our volume form coincides with the usual volume form (which are defined via the period mapping) up to a multiplicative constant. We also prove similar results for the moduli space of flat metric structures on the n-punctured sphere with prescribed cone angles up to homothety. When all the angles are smaller than 2π, it is known (cf. [T]) that this moduli space is a complex hyperbolic orbifold. In this particular case, we prove that our volume form induces a volume form which is equal to the complex hyperbolic volume form up to a multiplicative constant.     

Eigenfunctions of the Laplacian acting on degree zero bundles over special Riemann surfaces

We find an infinite set of eigenfunctions for the Laplacian with respect to a flat metric with conical singularities and acting on degree zero bundles over special Riemann surfaces of genus greater than one. These special surfaces correspond to Riemann period matrices satisfying a set of equations which lead to a number theoretical problem. It turns out that these surfaces precisely correspond to branched covering of the torus. This reflects in a Jacobian with a particular kind of complex multiplication.

     

Gravitational radiation and the evolution of gravitational collapse in cylindrical symmetry

Using the Sparling form and a geometric construction adapted to spacetimes with a 2-dimensional isometry group, we analyse a quasi-local measure of gravitational energy. We then study the gravitational radiation through spacetime junctions in cylindrically symmetric models of gravitational collapse to singularities. The models result from the matching of collapsing dust fluids interiors with gravitational wave exteriors, given by the Einstein–Rosen type solutions. For a given choice of a frame adapted to the symmetry of the matching hypersurface, we are able to compute the total gravitational energy radiated during the collapse and state whether the gravitational radiation is incoming or outgoing, in each case. This also enables us to distinguish whether a gravitational collapse is being enhanced by the gravitational radiation.     

On the generalized Weyl problem for flat metrics in the hyperbolic 3-space

The paper deals with the study of complete embedded flat surfaces in H³${\mathbb{H}}^3$ with a finite number of isolated singularities. We give a detailed information about its topology, conformal type and metric properties. We show how to solve the generalized Weyl?s problem of realizing isometrically any complete flat metric with Euclidean singularities in H³${\mathbb{H}}^3$ which gives the existence of complete embedded flat surfaces with a finite arbitrary number of isolated singularities.     

Complete flat surfaces with two isolated singularities in hyperbolic 3-space

We construct examples of flat surfaces in H³ which are graphs over a two-punctured horosphere and classify complete embedded flat surfaces in H³ with only one end and at most two isolated singularities.     

Ribaucour transformations for flat surfaces in the hyperbolic 3-space

We consider Ribaucour transformations for flat surfaces in the hyperbolic 3-space, H³${\mathbb{H}}^3$. We show that such transformations produce complete, embedded ends of horosphere type and curves of singularities which generically are cuspidal edges. Moreover, we prove that these ends and curves of singularities do not intersect. We apply Ribaucour transformations to rotational flat surfaces in H³${\mathbb{H}}^3$ providing new families of explicitly given flat surfaces H³${\mathbb{H}}^3$ which are determined by several parameters. For special choices of the parameters, we get surfaces that are periodic in one variable and surfaces with any even number or an infinite number of embedded ends of horosphere type.     

A Class of Dust-Like Self-Similar Solutions of the Massless Einstein�CVlasov System

In this paper the existence of a class of self-similar solutions of the Einstein–Vlasov system is proved. The initial data for these solutions are not smooth, with their particle density being supported in a submanifold of codimension one. They can be thought of as intermediate between smooth solutions of the Einstein–Vlasov system and dust. The motivation for studying them is to obtain insights into possible violation of weak cosmic censorship by solutions of the Einstein–Vlasov system. By assuming a suitable form of the unknowns it is shown that the existence question can be reduced to that of the existence of a certain type of solution of a four-dimensional system of ordinary differential equations depending on two parameters. This solution starts at a particular point P ₀ and converges to a stationary solution P ₁ as the independent variable tends to infinity. The existence proof is based on a shooting argument and involves relating the dynamics of solutions of the four-dimensional system to that of solutions of certain two- and three-dimensional systems obtained from it by limiting processes. The spacetimes constructed do not constitute a counterexample to cosmic censorship since they are not asymptotically flat. They should be seen as the first step on a possible path towards constructing solutions of importance for understanding the issue of the formation of naked singularities in general relativity.     

Anti de Sitter horospherical flat timelike surfaces

We investigate a special timelike surfaces in Anti de Sitter 3-space.We call such a timelike surface an Anti de Sitter horospherical flat surface which belongs to a class of surfaces given by one parameter families of Anti de Sitter horocycle.We give a generic classification of singularities and study the geometric properties of such surfaces from the viewpoint of Legendrian singularity theory.     

Positive energy theorem for (4+1)-dimensional asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetimes

We define the total energy-momenta for(4+1)-dimensional asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetimes,which comes from the boundary terms at infinity in the integral form of the Weitzenbck formula.Then we prove the positive energy theorem for such spacetimes,following Witten’s original argumentsfor the positive energy theorem in asymptotically flat spacetimes.     

The Spatially Homogeneous Relativistic Boltzmann Equation with a Hard Potential

In this paper, we study spatially homogeneous solutions of the Boltzmann equation in special relativity and in Robertson-Walker spacetimes. We obtain an analogue of the Povzner inequality in the relativistic case and use it to prove global existence theorems. We show that global solutions exist for a certain class of collision cross sections of the hard potential type in Minkowski space and in spatially flat Robertson-Walker spacetimes.     

Penrose-type inequalities with a Euclidean background

The Riemannian Penrose inequality (RPI) bounds from below the ADM mass of asymptotically flat manifolds of nonnegative scalar curvature in terms of the total area of all outermost compact minimal surfaces. The general form of the RPI is currently known for manifolds of dimension up to seven. In the present work, we prove a Penrose-like inequality that is valid in all dimensions, for conformally flat manifolds. Our inequality treats the area contributions of the minimal surfaces in a more favorable way than the RPI, at the expense of using the smaller Euclidean area (rather than the intrinsic area). We give an example in which our estimate is sharper than the RPI when many minimal surfaces are present. We do not require the minimal surfaces to be outermost. We also generalize the technique to allow for metrics conformal to a scalar-flat (not necessarily Euclidean) background and prove a Penrose-type inequality without an assumption on the sign of scalar curvature. Finally, we derive a new lower bound for the ADM mass of a conformally flat, asymptotically flat manifold containing any number of zero area singularities.     

Flache T1-Stabilität in der Strati-fizierung verseller Entfaltungen

Let 0 be the local ring of a simple singularity defined over the complex numbers and the dimension of its versal deformation space. Than it is well known that any nearby singularity in this space is also simple and has smaller unfolding dimension in the hierarchy of simple singularities. In particular this implies that the =max-stratum consists just of one point namely the given singularity. We want to generalize this concept as we are interested in families of varieties with formal unchanged singularities. For this we introduce in quite generality the notion of flat T¹-stabi1ity which may be checked for any k- algebra 0 where k is for simplicity an algebraically closed field of à priori arbitrary characteristics. We call 0 formal flat T¹ stable or for short flat T¹-stable if the following is true: if R is any deformation of 0 over an Artin local finite k-algebra A and if T¹(R/A,R) is A-flat than R is isomorphic to the trivial deformation . T¹(R/A,R) is the first cotangent module of R over A with values in R. Obviously the simple singularities A_k, D_k, E₆, E₇, E₈ fulfill this criterion over C but we look also at fibres of arbitrary stable map germs, generic singularities of algebraic varieties where we have to modify this notion in order to deal with wild ramification and to quasihomo-genous hypersurface singularities where it functorializes because in this case T¹ commutes with arbitrary base change. The notion of flat T¹-stable singularities is closely related to questions of existence of equisingular families and is used in[12] and [5], [6] to stratify certain Hilbert schemes.     

Bending of a piecewise developable surface

We substantiate in detail the possibility of one-parameter bending of a developable surface possessing a stationary curvilinear edge and stationary rectilinear generators. We construct particular examples of developable surfaces that possess a curvilinear edge and admit one-parameter bendings. We also give examples of closed piecewise developable surfaces that admit one-parameter bendings.     

Systoles des surfaces plates singulières de genre deux

The extremal metrics for the isosystolic problem on surfaces of genus two are studied in this paper. We show that, contrary to E. Calabis conjecture in genus three, no flat metric with conical singularities is extremal for this problem in genus two.in final form: 28 August 2003     

Discrete maximal surfaces with singularities in Minkowski space

We describe discrete maximal surfaces with singularities in 3-dimensional Minkowski space and give a Weierstrass type representation for them. In the smooth case, maximal surfaces (spacelike surfaces with mean curvature identically 0) in Minkowski 3-space generally have certain singularities. We give a criterion that naturally describes the “singular set” for discrete maximal surfaces, including a classification of the various types of singularities that are possible in the discrete case.     

Functions of time type,curvature and causality theory

In the present paper various necessary and/or sufficient conditions in terms of the existence and properties of quasi-time functions, semi-time functions and generalized time functions are provided to get different levels of the causal ladder in spacetimes. We also show several links between curvature conditions and causality.     

Geodesics in stationary spacetimes and classical Lagrangian systems

We state a fundamental correspondence between geodesics on stationary spacetimes and the equations of classical particles on Riemannian manifolds, accelerated by a potential and a magnetic field. By variational methods, we prove some existence and multiplicity theorems for fixed energy solutions (joining two points or periodic) of the above described Riemannian equation. As a consequence, we obtain existence and multiplicity results for geodesics with fixed energy, connecting a point to a line or periodic trajectories, in (standard) stationary spacetimes.