A geometric transition from hyperbolic to anti-de Sitter geometry (Q372697)

This paper deals with the geometric transition between hyperbolic and anti-de Sitter geometry. The main theorem of the paper is the existence of such a transition for certain small Seifert manifolds, yielding a path of hyperbolic manifolds with cone singularities that collapse to the leaf space of the Seifert fibration (a hyperbolic 2-orbifold) and continues to anti de-Sitter manifolds with the so called tachyon singularities. This kind of phenomena for three-manifolds is motivated by the work of Thurston in the orbifold theorem, where hyperbolic three-manifolds with cone singularities are deformed. Sometimes the hyperbolic structure collapses, yielding geometric structures, like foliations, or even transitions to geometries other than hyperbolic. See [\textit{D. Cooper} et al., Three-dimensional orbifolds and cone-manifolds. MSJ Memoirs. 5. Tokyo: Mathematical Society of Japan (2000; Zbl 0955.57014)] or [\textit{M. Boileau} et al., Ann. Math. (2) 162, No. 1, 195--290 (2005; Zbl 1087.57009)]. A very interesting new geometric structure is introduced, the so called half-pipe geometry, which gives the transition between hyperbolic (Riemannian) and anti-de Sitter (Lorentzian). A similar situation occurs for Euclidean geometry (with zero curvature) as a transition between hyperbolic and spherical geometry (i.e. between negative and positive curvature). See [\textit{J. Porti} and \textit{H. Weiss}, Geom. Topol. 11, 1507--1538 (2007; Zbl 1159.57007)]. In particular half-pipe is neither a Lorentz nor a Riemannian metric, but the tangent space is equipped with a degenerate form. Here geometric structures are understood in the sense of Thurston and Haeffliger, with a developing map into a space \(X\) and a holonomy group representation in a group \(G\) acting on \(X\). Thus a transition is a continuous (even analytic) family of pairs \((G, X)\). In this case \(X\) is the \(n\)-dimensional projective space and the group is the isometry group of a one parameter family of quadratic forms that changes signature: from \(PO(n,1)\) (hyperbolic isometries) to \(PO(n-1,2)\) (anti-de Sitter isometries). In the transition \(G\) is a subgroup of the isometries of a degenerate form, that defines the so called half-pipe geometry. This structure is not only defined in terms of the degenerate quadratic form, but also of the natural foliation of dimension one (consisting of degenerate directions) that is transversally hyperbolic. The group of half-pipe geometry is isomorphic to the semi direct product of \(O(n-1,1)\) with the translation group of \(\mathbb R^{n-1,1}\). Here \(O(n-1,1)\) can be seen as the intersection of the isometries of hyperbolic space with the isometries of anti-de Sitter. The semidirect product structure allows to relate infinitesimal deformations of a representation in \(O(n-1,1)\) with the translational part in \(\mathbb R^{n-1,1}\). In particular a regeneration theorem for half-pipe structures into hyperbolic or anti-de Sitter geometry is obtained in terms of cohomology with twisted coefficients.