Differential Geometric Aspects of Causal Structures

This article is concerned with causal structures, which are defined as a field of tangentially non-degenerate projective hypersurfaces in the projectivized tangent bundle of a manifold. The local equivalence problem of causal structures on manifolds of dimension at least four is solved using Cartan&...

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Published in:Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications
Date:2018
Main Author: Makhmali, O.
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Інститут математики НАН України 2018
Online Access:https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/handle/123456789/209770
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Journal Title:Digital Library of Periodicals of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Cite this:Differential Geometric Aspects of Causal Structures / O. Makhmali // Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications. — 2018. — Т. 14. — Бібліогр.: 71 назв. — англ.

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Digital Library of Periodicals of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
id nasplib_isofts_kiev_ua-123456789-209770
record_format dspace
spelling Makhmali, O.
2025-11-26T11:32:46Z
2018
Differential Geometric Aspects of Causal Structures / O. Makhmali // Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications. — 2018. — Т. 14. — Бібліогр.: 71 назв. — англ.
1815-0659
2010 Mathematics Subject Classification: 53A55; 58A15; 58A30
arXiv: 1704.02542
https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/handle/123456789/209770
https://doi.org/10.3842/SIGMA.2018.080
This article is concerned with causal structures, which are defined as a field of tangentially non-degenerate projective hypersurfaces in the projectivized tangent bundle of a manifold. The local equivalence problem of causal structures on manifolds of dimension at least four is solved using Cartan's method of equivalence, leading to an {e}-structure over some principal bundle. It is shown that these structures correspond to parabolic geometries of type (Dₙ, P₁,₂) and (Bₙ₋₁, P₁,₂), when n ≥ 4, and (D₃, P₁,₂,₃). The essential local invariants are determined and interpreted geometrically. Several special classes of causal structures are considered, including those that are a lift of pseudo-conformal structures and those referred to as causal structures with vanishing Wsf curvature. A twistorial construction for causal structures with vanishing Wsf curvature is given.
This work was carried out under the guidance of Professor N. Kamran, whom I would like to thank greatly for his clear explanation of Cartan’s method of equivalence and for introducing me to the work of Holland and Sparling [33]. His encouragement, help, and support during my PhD made this work possible. I am also very much indebted to Dennis The for the many helpful conversations that we had and for patiently explaining some aspects of parabolic geometry. I thank the anonymous referees for their corrections and suggestions. The funding for this work was provided by McGill University.
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Інститут математики НАН України
Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications
Differential Geometric Aspects of Causal Structures
Article
published earlier
institution Digital Library of Periodicals of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
collection DSpace DC
title Differential Geometric Aspects of Causal Structures
spellingShingle Differential Geometric Aspects of Causal Structures
Makhmali, O.
title_short Differential Geometric Aspects of Causal Structures
title_full Differential Geometric Aspects of Causal Structures
title_fullStr Differential Geometric Aspects of Causal Structures
title_full_unstemmed Differential Geometric Aspects of Causal Structures
title_sort differential geometric aspects of causal structures
author Makhmali, O.
author_facet Makhmali, O.
publishDate 2018
language English
container_title Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications
publisher Інститут математики НАН України
format Article
description This article is concerned with causal structures, which are defined as a field of tangentially non-degenerate projective hypersurfaces in the projectivized tangent bundle of a manifold. The local equivalence problem of causal structures on manifolds of dimension at least four is solved using Cartan's method of equivalence, leading to an {e}-structure over some principal bundle. It is shown that these structures correspond to parabolic geometries of type (Dₙ, P₁,₂) and (Bₙ₋₁, P₁,₂), when n ≥ 4, and (D₃, P₁,₂,₃). The essential local invariants are determined and interpreted geometrically. Several special classes of causal structures are considered, including those that are a lift of pseudo-conformal structures and those referred to as causal structures with vanishing Wsf curvature. A twistorial construction for causal structures with vanishing Wsf curvature is given.
issn 1815-0659
url https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/handle/123456789/209770
citation_txt Differential Geometric Aspects of Causal Structures / O. Makhmali // Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications. — 2018. — Т. 14. — Бібліогр.: 71 назв. — англ.
work_keys_str_mv AT makhmalio differentialgeometricaspectsofcausalstructures
first_indexed 2025-12-07T15:10:08Z
last_indexed 2025-12-07T15:10:08Z
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