Causal evolution of probability measures and continuity equation

Publication date 6 April 2021

Miscellaneous topics in measure theory (28E99) Global differential geometry of Lorentz manifolds, manifolds with indefinite metrics (53C50) Applications of global differential geometry to the sciences (53C80) Probability measures on topological spaces (60B05)

Abstract: We study the notion of a causal time-evolution of a conserved nonlocal physical quantity in a globally hyperbolic spacetime

m a t h c a l M

. The role of the `global time' is played by a chosen Cauchy temporal function

m a t h c a l T

, whereas the instantaneous configurations of the nonlocal quantity are modeled by probability measures

m u_{t}

supported on the corresponding time slices

m a t h c a l T^{- 1} (t)

. We show that the causality of such an evolution can be expressed in three equivalent ways: (i) via the causal precedence relation

p r e c e q

extended to probability measures, (ii) with the help of a probability measure

s i g m a

on the space of future-directed continuous causal curves endowed with the compact-open topology and (iii) through a causal vector field

X

of

L_{e x t r m l o c}^{2}

-regularity, with which the map

t m a p s t o m u_{t}

satisfies the continuity equation in the distributional sense. In the course of the proof we find that the compact-open topology is sensitive to the differential properties of the causal curves, being equal to a topology induced from a suitable

H_{e x t r m l o c}^{1}

-Sobolev space. This enables us to construct

X

as a vector field in a sense `tangent' to

s i g m a

. In addition, we discuss the general covariance of descriptions (i)-(iii), unraveling the geometrical, observer-independent notions behind them.

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