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Eric Ling

Publications and source records attributed to Eric Ling.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2025

A simplified proof of a cosmological singularity theorem

In a previous paper [9], we proved the following singularity theorem applicable to cosmological models with a positive cosmological constant: if a four-dimensional spacetime satisfying the null energy condition contains a compact Cauchy surface which is expanding in all directions, then the spacetime is past null geodesically incomplete unless the Cauchy surface is topologically a spherical space. The proof in [9] made use of the positive resolution of the surface subgroup conjecture [15]. In this note, we demonstrate how the less-broadly-known positive resolution of the virtual positive first Betti number conjecture [1] provides a more streamlined and unified approach to the proof. We illustrate the theorem with some examples and analyze its rigidity under null geodesic completeness.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2025

On energy and its positivity in spacetimes with an expanding flat de Sitter background

The positive energy theorems are a fundamental pillar in mathematical general relativity. Originally proved by Schoen-Yau and later Witten, these theorems were established for asymptotically flat manifolds where the metric tends to the standard Euclidean metric and whose second fundamental form decays to zero at infinity. This ansatz on the metric and second fundamental form is motivated by the desire to model an isolated gravitational system with a Minkowski space background for the spacetime. However, actual astrophysical massive objects are not truly isolated but rather exist within an expanding cosmological universe, where the second fundamental form is umbilic. With this in mind, we seek a notion of energy for initial data sets with an umbilic second fundamental form. In this work, we present a definition of energy in such an expanding cosmological setting. Instead of Minkowski space, we take de Sitter space as the background spacetime, which, when written in flat-expanding coordinates, is foliated by umbilic hypersurfaces each isometric to Euclidean 3-space. This cosmological setting necessitates a quasi-local energy definition, as the presence of a cosmological horizon in de Sitter space obstructs a global one. We define energy in this quasi-local setting by adapting the Liu-Yau energy to our framework and establish positivity of this energy for certain bounded values of the cosmological constant.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2025

The Penrose singularity theorem, MOTS stability, and horizon topology in weighted spacetimes

We consider versions of the Penrose singularity theorem and the Hawking horizon topology theorem in weighted spacetimes that contain weighted versions of trapped surfaces, for arbitrary spacetime dimension and synthetic dimension. We find that suitable generalizations of the unweighted theorems hold under a weighted null energy condition. Our results also provide further evidence in favour of a weighted scalar curvature that differs from the trace of the weighted Ricci curvature. When the synthetic dimension is a positive integer, these weighted curvatures have a natural interpretation in terms of warped product metrics.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2025

Rigidity aspects of a cosmological singularity theorem

Improving a singularity theorem in General Relativity by Galloway and Ling we show the following (cf.\ Theorem 1): If a globally hyperbolic spacetime $M$ satisfying the null energy condition contains a closed, spacelike Cauchy surface $(V,g,K)$ (with metric $g$ and extrinsic curvature $K$) which is 2-convex (meaning that the sum of the lowest two eigenvalues of $K$ is non-negative), then either $M$ is past null geodesically incomplete, or $V$ is a spherical space, or $V$ or some finite cover is a surface bundle over the circle, with totally geodesic fibers. Moreover, (cf.\ Theorem 2) if $(V,g,K)$ admits a $U(1)$ isometry group with corresponding Killing vector $\xi$, we can relax the convexity requirement in terms of a decomposition of $K$ with respect to the directions parallel and orthogonal to $\xi$. Finally, (cf. Propositions 1-3) in the special cases that $V$ is either non-orientable, or non-prime, or an orientable Haken manifold with vanishing second homology, we obtain stronger statements in both Theorems without passing to covers.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2024

A CMC existence result for expanding cosmological spacetimes

We establish a new CMC (constant mean curvature) existence result for cosmological spacetimes, i.e., globally hyperbolic spacetimes with compact Cauchy surfaces satisfying the strong energy condition. If the spacetime contains an expanding Cauchy surface and is future timelike geodesically complete, then the spacetime contains a CMC Cauchy surface. This result settles, under certain circumstances, a conjecture of the authors and a conjecture of Dilts and Holst. Our proof relies on the construction of barriers in the support sense, and the CMC Cauchy surface is found as the asymptotic limit of mean curvature flow. Analogous results are also obtained in the case of a positive cosmological constant $\Lambda > 0$. Lastly, we include some comments concerning the future causal boundary for cosmological spacetimes which pertain to the CMC conjecture of the authors.

math.DG↗
arXiv2024

Vacuum cosmological spacetimes without CMC Cauchy surfaces

In this article, we extend a construction of [6] to obtain a large class of vacuum cosmological spacetimes that do not contain any CMC Cauchy surfaces. The allowed spatial topologies for these examples are of the form $M \# M$, where $M$ is any closed, oriented, irreducible $3$-manifold which is not spherical. This complements the recent results of [19], where, instead of initial data methods, global spacetime gluing arguments were used. The study of such examples is sure to yield insight into Bartnik's cosmological splitting conjecture [1].

gr-qc↗
arXiv2024

Anisotropic examples of inflation-generating initial conditions for the big bang

The inflationary scenario, which states that the early universe underwent a brief but dramatic period of accelerated spatial expansion, has become the current paradigm of early universe cosmology. Although inflationary cosmology has its many successes, it does not (as of yet) have the status of an established physical theory. In this paper, we provide mathematical support for the inflationary scenario in a class of anisotropic spacetimes by generalizing the work in [21]. These anisotropic spacetimes satisfy certain initial conditions so that they are perfectly isotropic at the big bang but become less isotropic as time progresses. The resulting inflationary eras are a consequence of the initial conditions which force the energy-momentum tensor to be dominated by a cosmological constant at the big bang.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2024

Rigidity aspects of Penrose's singularity theorem

In this paper, we study rigidity aspects of Penrose's singularity theorem. Specifically, we aim to answer the following question: if a spacetime satisfies the hypotheses of Penrose's singularity theorem except with weakly trapped surfaces instead of trapped surfaces, then what can be said about the global spacetime structure if the spacetime is null geodesically complete? In this setting, we show that we obtain a foliation of MOTS which generate totally geodesic null hypersurfaces. Depending on our starting assumptions, we obtain either local or global rigidity results. We apply our arguments to cosmological spacetimes (i.e., spacetimes with compact Cauchy surfaces) and scenarios involving topological censorship.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2024

On the discrete Dirac spectrum of general-relativistic hydrogenic ions with anomalous magnetic moment

The Reissner-Weyl-Nordstr\"om (RWN) spacetime of a point nucleus features a naked singularity for the empirically known nuclear charges $Ze$ and masses $M = A(Z,N)m_{\mathrm{p}}$, where $m_{\mathrm{p}}$ is the proton mass and $A(Z,N)\approx Z+N$ the atomic mass number, with $Z$ the number of protons and $N$ the number of neutrons in the nucleus. The Dirac Hamiltonian for a test electron with mass $m_{\mathrm{e}}$, charge $-e$, and anomalous magnetic moment $\mu_a (\approx - \frac{1}{4\pi}\frac{e^3}{m_{\mathrm{e}} c^2})$ in the electrostatic RWN spacetime of such a 'naked point nucleus' is known to be essentially self-adjoint, with a spectrum that consists of the union of the essential spectrum $(-\infty, m_{\mathrm{e}} c^2]\cup[m_{\mathrm{e}} c^2, \infty)$ and a discrete spectrum of infinitely many eigenvalues in the gap $(-m_{\mathrm{e}} c^2,m_{\mathrm{e}} c^2)$, having $m_{\mathrm{e}} c^2$ as accumulation point. In this paper the discrete spectrum is characterized in detail for the first time, for all $Z\leq 45$ and $A$ that cover all known isotopes. The eigenvalues are mapped one-to-one to those of the traditional Dirac Hydrogen spectrum. Numerical evaluations that go beyond $Z=45$ into the realm of not-yet-produced hydrogenic ions are presented, too. A list of challenging open problems concludes this publication.

math-ph↗
arXiv2023

Examples of cosmological spacetimes without CMC Cauchy surfaces

CMC (constant mean curvature) Cauchy surfaces play an important role in mathematical relativity as finding solutions to the vacuum Einstein constraint equations is made much simpler by assuming CMC initial data. However, in [2] Bartnik constructed a cosmological spacetime without a CMC Cauchy surface whose spatial topology is the connected sum of two three-dimensional tori. Similarly, in [9], Chru\'sciel, Isenberg, and Pollack constructed a vacuum cosmological spacetime without CMC Cauchy surfaces whose spatial topology was also the connected sum of two tori. In this article, we enlarge the known number of spatial topologies for cosmological spacetimes without CMC Cauchy surfaces by generalizing Bartnik's construction. Specifically, we show that there are cosmological spacetimes without CMC Cauchy surfaces whose spatial topologies are the connected sum of any compact oriented Euclidean or hyperbolic three-manifold with any another compact oriented Euclidean or hyperbolic three-manifold. We work with the Tolman-Bondi class of metrics and prove gluing results for variable marginal conditions, which allows for smooth gluing of Schwarzschild to FLRW models.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2023

A lower semicontinuous time separation function for $C^0$ spacetimes

The time separation function (or Lorentzian distance function) is a fundamental object used in Lorentzian geometry. For smooth spacetimes it is known to be lower semicontinuous, and in fact, continuous for globally hyperbolic spacetimes. Moreover, an axiom for Lorentzian length spaces - a synthetic approach to Lorentzian geometry - is the existence of a lower semicontinuous time separation function. Nevertheless, the usual time separation function is $\textit{not}$ necessarily lower semicontinuous for $C^0$ spacetimes due to bubbling phenomena. In this paper, we introduce a class of curves called "nearly timelike" and show that the time separation function for $C^0$ spacetimes is lower semicontinuous when defined with respect to nearly timelike curves. Moreover, this time separation function agrees with the usual one when the metric is smooth. Lastly, sufficient conditions are found guaranteeing the existence of a nearly timelike maximizer between two points in a $C^0$ spacetime.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2023

On the initial singularity and extendibility of flat quasi-de Sitter spacetimes

Inflationary spacetimes have been argued to be past geodesically incomplete in many situations. However, whether the geodesic incompleteness implies the existence of an initial spacetime curvature singularity or whether the spacetime may be extended (potentially into another phase of the universe) is generally unknown. Both questions have important physical implications. In this paper, we take a closer look at the geometrical structure of inflationary spacetimes and investigate these very questions. We first classify which past inflationary histories have a scalar curvature singularity and which might be extendible and/or non-singular in homogeneous and isotropic cosmology with flat spatial sections. Then, we derive rigorous extendibility criteria of various regularity classes for quasi-de Sitter spacetimes that evolve from infinite proper time in the past. Finally, we show that beyond homogeneity and isotropy, special continuous extensions respecting the Einstein field equations with a perfect fluid must have the equation of state of a de Sitter universe asymptotically. An interpretation of our results is that past-eternal inflationary scenarios are most likely physically singular, except in situations with very special initial conditions.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2022

On the asymptotic assumptions for Milne-like spacetimes

Milne-like spacetimes are a class of hyperbolic FLRW spacetimes which admit continuous spacetime extensions through the big bang, $\tau = 0$. The existence of the extension follows from writing the metric in conformal Minkowskian coordinates and assuming that the scale factor satisfies $a(\tau) = \tau + o(\tau^{1+\varepsilon})$ as $\tau \to 0$ for some $\varepsilon > 0$. This asymptotic assumption implies $a(\tau) = \tau + o(\tau)$. In this paper, we show that $a(\tau) = \tau + o(\tau)$ is not sufficient to achieve an extension through $\tau = 0$, but it is necessary provided its derivative converges as $\tau \to 0$. We also show that the $\varepsilon$ in $a(\tau) = \tau + o(\tau^{1+\varepsilon})$ is not necessary to achieve an extension through $\tau = 0$.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2022

The codimension 2 null cut locus with applications to spacetime topology

In this paper we review and extend some results in the literature pertaining to spacetime topology while naturally utilizing properties of the codimension 2 null cut locus. Our results fall into two classes, depending on whether or not one assumes the presence of horizons. Included among the spacetimes we consider are those that apply to the asymptotically (locally) AdS setting.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2022

Remarks on the cosmological constant appearing as an initial condition for Milne-like spacetimes

Milne-like spacetimes are a class of $k = -1$ FLRW spacetimes which admit continuous spacetime extensions through the big bang. In a previous paper [30], it was shown that the cosmological constant appears as an initial condition for Milne-like spacetimes. In this paper, we generalize this statement to spacetimes which share similar geometrical properties with Milne-like spacetimes but without the strong spatially isotropic assumption associated with them. We show how our results yield a "quasi de Sitter" expansion for the early universe which could have applications to inflationary scenarios.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2021

On the discrete Dirac spectrum of a point electron in the zero-gravity Kerr-Newman spacetime

The discrete spectrum of the Dirac operator for a point electron in the maximal analytically extended Kerr--Newman spacetime is determined in the zero-$G$ limit (z$G$KN), under some restrictions on the electrical coupling constant and on the radius of the ring-singularity of the z$G$KN spacetime. The spectrum is characterized by a triplet of integers, associated with winding numbers of orbits of dynamical systems on cylinders. A dictionary is established that relates the spectrum with the known hydrogenic Dirac spectrum. Numerical illustrations are presented. Open problems are listed.

math-ph↗