On a class of geodesically connected Lorentzian manifolds
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: On a class of geodesically connected Lorentzian manifolds
zbMATH Open document ID: 0891.53048
author: Flavia Antonacci
author: Rosella Sampalmieri
published in: Journal of Differential Equations
publication date: 1998-07-06T00:00:00Z
review text: The classical Hopf-Rinow theorem for Riemannian (i.e., positive definite) manifolds does not hold in Lorentzian geometry, and a Lorentzian manifold \((M,g)\) may fail to be geodesically connected even under the assumptions of compactness. In this paper, the authors study the problem of the existence of one geodesic, of any causal type, between two fixed points of a Lorentzian manifold of splitting type. These are product manifolds of the form \(M=M_0\times \mathbb{R}\), with the metric given by \(ds^2=\alpha_{ij}dx^idx^j-\beta dt^2\), where \(dx^2=\delta_{ij}dx^idx^j\) is a positive definite metric on \(M_0\), \(\alpha(x,t)=(\alpha_{ij}(x,t))\) is a positive operator on \(T_xM_0\) and \(\beta\) is a smooth positive scalar field on \(M\). The main result of existence, that improves previous results by F.\ Giannoni and A.\ Masiello, is given in terms of suitable conditions on the metric coefficients \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\). The authors use techniques from critical point theory, and in particular the Rabinowitz saddle point theory is used to get the existence of a critical point for a penalized action functional \(f_\varepsilon\), \(\varepsilon>0\). A critical point for the action functional \(f\) is then obtained by a limit process as \(\varepsilon\downarrow0\) based on a priori estimates on the critical points of \(f_\varepsilon\).
reviewed by: Paolo Piccione
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 53C50
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 53C22
zbMATH DE Number: 1054119
zbMATH Keywords: Lorentzian manifolds
zbMATH Keywords: geodesics
zbMATH Keywords: orthogonal splitting manifolds
MaRDI profile type: MaRDI publication profile
full work available at URL: jdeq.1997.3253
OpenAlex ID: W2046564924
cites work: Closed geodesies on compact Lorentzian manifolds of splitting type
cites work: On the existence of infinitely many geodesics on space-time manifolds
cites work: On the existence of multiple geodesics in static space-times
cites work: On the geodesic connectedness of Lorentzian manifolds
cites work: Pseudoconvexity and geodesic connectedness
cites work: Geodesics on product Lorentzian manifolds
cites work: Q3312869
cites work: Morse theory on Hilbert manifolds
cites work: Q4084319
cites work: Geodesical connectedness of compact Lorentzian manifolds
DOI: 10.1006/JDEQ.1997.3253
Recommended article: On the Geodesic Connectedeness of a Class of Lorentzian Manifolds with Boundary
Recommended article: On the geodesic connectedness of Lorentzian manifolds
Recommended article: Geodesical connectedness of compact Lorentzian manifolds
Recommended article: Critical point theory and global lorentzian geometry
description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1054119