Volume comparison for hypersurfaces in Lorentzian manifolds and singularity theorems (Q1942005)

The authors derive area and volume comparison theorems for the evolution of space-like, acausal, and causally complete hypersurfaces in Lorentzian manifolds, which have a lower bound on the Ricci tensor along time-like curves, and an upper bound on the mean curvature of the hypersurface. Using these results, they give a new proof of the Hawking singularity theorems. Contents include: Introduction; Background material; Riccati comparison; Lorentzian Ricci curvature comparison; Application to singularity theorems; Final Remarks; Appendix; References (twenty-two items).