Convex regions of stationary spacetimes and Randers spaces. Applications to lensing and asymptotic flatness (Q282784)

The authors give a characterization of light- and time-convexity of the boundary of a region of a standard stationary \((n+1)\)-spacetime, in terms of the convexity of the boundary of a domain in a Finsler \(n\) or \((n +1)\)-space of the Randers type. For this, they make use of the stationary-to-Randers correspondence from the paper [Rev. Mat. Iberoam. 27, No. 3, 919--952 (2011; Zbl 1229.53070)] by the first author et al. As it is mentioned in the abstract of the paper, ``the latter convexity is analyzed in depth and, as a consequence, the causal simplicity and the existence of causal geodesics confined in the region and connecting a point to a stationary line are characterized. Applications to asymptotically flat spacetimes include the light-convexity of hypersurfaces \(S^{n-1}(r)\times\mathbb{R}\), where \(S^{n-1}(r)\) is a sphere of large radius in a spacelike section of an end, as well as the characterization of their time-convexity with natural physical interpretations''. Finally, as it is mentioned in the abstract of the paper, ``the lens effect of both light rays and freely falling massive particles with a finite lifetime (i.e., the multiplicity of such connecting curves) is characterized in terms of the focalization of the geodesics in the underlying Randers manifolds''.