Lorentzian Cheeger-Gromov convergence and temporal functions

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Burgos, Saúl, Flores, José L., Sánchez, Miguel
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Burgos, Saúl
Flores, José L.
Sánchez, Miguel
author_facet Burgos, Saúl
Flores, José L.
Sánchez, Miguel
contents Uniqueness (up to isometries) and existence of limits are studied in the context of Cheeger-Gromov convergence of spacetimes. To address the non-compactness of the vector isometry group in the semi-Riemannian setting, standard pointed convergence is strengthened to anchored convergence, which in the Lorentzian case requires the convergence of a timelike direction. This allows one to construct a local isometry between neighborhoods of the basepoints, which can be extended globally under geodesic completeness or just inextensibility. In spacetimes, by using Cauchy temporal functions as both strengthening of anchors and tools to ``Wick rotate'' metrics, a special notion of convergence for globally hyperbolic spacetimes (including those with timelike boundaries) is introduced. After revisiting the tools related to time functions and studying their connections with Sormani-Vega null distance, the machinery of Riemannian Cheeger-Gromov theory becomes applicable. In particular, several results of independent interest are obtained, including local regularity of time functions up to rescaling, global and local characterizations of $h$-steep functions, independence of steepness and $h$-steepness for temporal functions, compatibility of both conditions for Cauchy temporal functions, and stability of the latter.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_15441
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Lorentzian Cheeger-Gromov convergence and temporal functions
Burgos, Saúl
Flores, José L.
Sánchez, Miguel
Differential Geometry
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Uniqueness (up to isometries) and existence of limits are studied in the context of Cheeger-Gromov convergence of spacetimes. To address the non-compactness of the vector isometry group in the semi-Riemannian setting, standard pointed convergence is strengthened to anchored convergence, which in the Lorentzian case requires the convergence of a timelike direction. This allows one to construct a local isometry between neighborhoods of the basepoints, which can be extended globally under geodesic completeness or just inextensibility. In spacetimes, by using Cauchy temporal functions as both strengthening of anchors and tools to ``Wick rotate'' metrics, a special notion of convergence for globally hyperbolic spacetimes (including those with timelike boundaries) is introduced. After revisiting the tools related to time functions and studying their connections with Sormani-Vega null distance, the machinery of Riemannian Cheeger-Gromov theory becomes applicable. In particular, several results of independent interest are obtained, including local regularity of time functions up to rescaling, global and local characterizations of $h$-steep functions, independence of steepness and $h$-steepness for temporal functions, compatibility of both conditions for Cauchy temporal functions, and stability of the latter.
title Lorentzian Cheeger-Gromov convergence and temporal functions
topic Differential Geometry
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.15441