Linking, Legendrian linking and causality

DOI10.1112/S0024611503014424zbMATH Open1047.83027arXivgr-qc/0210036MaRDI QIDQ4460741FDOQ4460741

Paul Tod, José Natário

Publication date: 29 March 2004

Published in: Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The set N of all null geodesics of a globally hyperbolic (d+1)-dimensional spacetime (M,g) is naturally a smooth (2d-1)-dimensional contact manifold. The sky of an event is the subset of N defined by all null geodesics through that event, and is an embedded Legendrian submanifold of N diffeomorphic to a (d-1)-dimensional sphere. It was conjectured by Low that for d=2 two events are causally related iff their skies are linked (in an appropriate sense). We use the contact structure and knot polynomial calculations to prove this conjecture in certain particular cases, and suggest that for d=3 smooth linking should be replaced with Legendrian linking.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0210036

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zbMATH Keywords

globally hyperbolic spacetimespacetimeslinkingwavefrontstime orientationlight raysLegendrian submanifodlLow's conjecture

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Applications of differential geometry to physics (53Z05) Space-time singularities, cosmic censorship, etc. (83C75) Contact manifolds (general theory) (53D10)

Cited In (24)

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• Affine linking number estimates for the number of times an observer sees a star
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• Conjectures about virtual Legendrian knots and links
• Mapped null hypersurfaces and Legendrian maps
• Non-negative Legendrian isotopy in \(ST^{\ast}M\)
• The space of light rays: causality and \(L\)-boundary
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• Legendrian links and déjà vu moments
• Pseudo-Riemannian geodesics and billiards
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• Legendrian links, causality, and the low conjecture
• Redshift and contact forms
• Toward a general theory of linking invariants
• Linking and causality in (2   1)-dimensional static spacetimes

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