Exotic differentiable structures and general relativity

DOI10.1007/BF00758828zbMATH Open0771.57012arXivgr-qc/9212003OpenAlexW3098444469MaRDI QIDQ2365653FDOQ2365653

Authors: Carl H. Brans, Duane Randall 

Publication date: 29 June 1993

Published in: General Relativity and Gravitation (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We review recent developments in differential topology with special concern for their possible significance to physical theories, especially general relativity. In particular we are concerned here with the discovery of the existence of non-standard (``fake or ``exotic) differentiable structures on topologically simple manifolds such as $S^7$, R and $$ Because of the technical difficulties involved in the smooth case, we begin with an easily understood toy example looking at the role which the choice of complex structures plays in the formulation of two-dimensional vacuum electrostatics. We then briefly review the mathematical formalisms involved with differentiable structures on topological manifolds, diffeomorphisms and their significance for physics. We summarize the important work of Milnor, Freedman, Donaldson, and others in developing exotic differentiable structures on well known topological manifolds. Finally, we discuss some of the geometric implications of these results and propose some conjectures on possible physical implications of these new manifolds which have never before been considered as physical models.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9212003

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Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Differential topology (57R99) General relativity (83C99)

Cites Work

• Groups of homotopy spheres. I
• On manifolds homeomorphic to the 7-sphere
• Global gravitational anomalies
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• An exotic sphere with nonnegative sectional curvature
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• The cut locus on low-dimensional noncompact manifolds
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Cited In (22)

• Infinitesimal Gribov copies in gauge-fixed topological Yang-Mills theories
• Exotic differential structures in dimension 2
• Differential groupoids and their application to the theory of spacetime singularities
• On the geometrization of matter by exotic smoothness
• Particulate exotica
• Quantum D-branes and exotic smooth \({\mathbb{R}}^4\)
• A model for spacetime: the role of interpretation in some Grothendieck topoi
• Topological quantum D-branes and wild embeddings from exotic smooth \(\mathbb R^4\)
• How to include fermions into general relativity by exotic smoothness
• Differential geometry, Palatini gravity and reduction
• Exotic smoothness and astrophysics
• Some applications of differential topology in general relativity
• The homological Kähler-de Rham differential mechanism. I: Application in general theory of relativity
• Cosmological anomalies and exotic smoothness structures
• Exotic smooth \(\mathbb R^{4}\) and certain configurations of NS and D branes in string theory
• GRAVITY ON EXOTIC R⁴'s WITH FEW SYMMETRIES
• Exotic smoothness and physics
• New level of relativity
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Exotic spheres' metrics and solutions via Kaluza-Klein techniques
• Exotic spaces and quantum gravity
• Exotic smoothness, noncommutative geometry, and particle physics

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