Cauchy surfaces and diffeomorphism types of globally hyperbolic spacetimes

Rafael Torres

doi:10.1088/0264-9381/31/17/175006

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arXiv · 1407.2773

Cauchy surfaces and diffeomorphism types of globally hyperbolic spacetimes

Rafael Torres

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Abstract

Chernov-Nemirovski observed that the existence of a globally hyperbolic Lorentzian metric on a (3 + 1)-spacetime pins down a smooth structure on the underlying 4-manifold. In this paper, we point out that the diffeomorphism type of a globally hyperbolic (n + 1)-spacetime is determined by the h-cobordism class of its Cauchy surface, hence extending Chernov-Nemirovski's observation to arbitrary dimensions.

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BibTeX RIS

Rafael Torres. 2014-07-10. Cauchy surfaces and diffeomorphism types of globally hyperbolic spacetimes. https://doi.org/10.1088/0264-9381/31/17/175006

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