arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Francesco Bonsante.
We present a list of open questions on various aspects of AdS geometry, that is, the geometry of Lorentz spaces of constant curvature -1. When possible we point out relations with homogeneous spaces and discrete subgroups of Lie groups, to Teichmüller theory, as well as analogs in hyperbolic geometry.
Let $\cT$ be Teichmüller space of a closed surface of genus at least 2. For any point $c\in \cT$, we describe an action of the circle on $\cT\times \cT$, which limits to the earthquake flow when one of the parameters goes to a measured lamination in the Thurston boundary of $\cT$. This circle action shares some of the main properties of the earthquake flow, for instance it satisfies an extension of Thurston's Earthquake Theorem and it has a complex extension which is analogous and limits to complex earthquakes. Moreover, a related circle action on $\cT\times \cT$ extends to the product of two copies of the universal Teichmüller space.
We investigate 3-dimensional globally hyperbolic AdS manifolds containing "particles", i.e., cone singularities along a graph $Γ$. We impose physically relevant conditions on the cone singularities, e.g. positivity of mass (angle less than $2π$ on time-like singular segments). We construct examples of such manifolds, describe the cone singularities that can arise and the way they can interact (the local geometry near the vertices of $Γ$). We then adapt to this setting some notions like global hyperbolicity which are natural for Lorentz manifolds, and construct some examples of globally hyperbolic AdS manifolds with interacting particles.
Let S be a closed surface of genus at least 2, and consider two measured geodesic laminations that fill S. Right earthquakes along these laminations are diffeomorphisms of the Teichmüller space of S. We prove that the composition of these earthquakes has a fixed point in the Teichmüller space. Another way to state this result is that it is possible to prescribe any two measured laminations that fill a surface as the upper and lower measured bending laminations of the convex core of a globally hyperbolic AdS manifold. The proof uses some estimates from the geometry of those AdS manifolds.
We show that any element of the universal Teichmüller space is realized by a unique minimal Lagrangian diffeomorphism from the hyperbolic plane to itself. The proof uses maximal surfaces in the 3-dimensional anti-de Sitter space. We show that, in $AdS^{n+1}$, any subset $E$ of the boundary at infinity which is the boundary at infinity of a space-like hypersurface bounds a maximal space-like hypersurface. In $AdS^3$, if $E$ is the graph of a quasi-symmetric homeomorphism, then this maximal surface is unique, and it has negative sectional curvature. As a by-product, we find a simple characterization of quasi-symmetric homeomorphisms of the circle in terms of 3-dimensional projective geometry.
We prove an "Earthquake Theorem" for hyperbolic metrics with geodesic boundary on a compact surfaces $S$ with boundary: given two hyperbolic metrics with geodesic boundary on a surface with $k$ boundary components, there are $2^k$ right earthquakes transforming the first in the second. An alternative formulation arises by introducing the enhanced Teichmueller space of S: We prove that any two points of the latter are related by a unique right earthquake. The proof rests on the geometry of ``multi-black holes'', which are 3-dimensional anti-de Sitter manifolds, topologically the product of a surface with boundary by an interval.
We investigate 3-dimensional globally hyperbolic AdS manifolds containing "particles", i.e., cone singularities along a graph $Γ$. We impose physically relevant conditions on the cone singularities, e.g. positivity of mass (angle less than $2π$ on time-like singular segments). We construct examples of such manifolds, describe the cone singularities that can arise and the way they can interact (the local geometry near the vertices of $Γ$). The local geometry near an "interaction point" (a vertex of the singular locus) has a simple geometric description in terms of polyhedra in the extension of hyperbolic 3-space by the de Sitter space. We then concentrate on spaces containing only (interacting) massive particles. To each such space we associate a graph and a finite family of pairs of hyperbolic surfaces with cone singularities. We show that this data is sufficient to recover the space locally (i.e., in the neighborhood of a fixed metric). This is a partial extension of a result of Mess for non-singular globally hyperbolic AdS manifolds.
We prove two related results. The first is an ``Earthquake Theorem'' for closed hyperbolic surfaces with cone singularities where the total angle is less than $π$: any two such metrics in are connected by a unique left earthquake. The second result is that the space of ``globally hyperbolic'' AdS manifolds with ``particles'' -- cone singularities (of given angle) along time-like lines -- is parametrized by the product of two copies of the Teichmüller space with some marked points (corresponding to the cone singularities). The two statements are proved together.
These notes are a companion to the article "Lorentz spacetimes of constant curvature" by Geoffrey Mess, which was first written in 1990 but never published. Mess' paper will appear together with these notes in a forthcoming issue of Geometriae Dedicata.
The aim of this survey is to give an overview on the geometry of Einstein maximal globally hyperbolic 2+1 spacetimes of arbitrary curvature, conatining a complete Cauchy surface of finite type. In particular a specialization to the finite type case of the canonicla Wick rotation-rescaling theory, previously developed by the authors, is provided. This includes, for arbitrary curvatures, parameterizations in terms of suitable measured geodesic laminations on open hyperbolic surfaces of finite type. The same geometric objects also parameterize complex projective structures on the surfaces. The coincidence of such parameter space is explained by means of geometric correlations between spacetimes of different curvatures and projective surfaces realized via canonical WR-rescaling along the cosmological times. We also specialize on AdS case mostly referring to recent results achieved by other authors. In particular we describe maximal causal extensions of AdS globally hyperbolic spacetimes and an AdS approach to the theory of earthquakes for hyperbolic surfaces of finite type. A general earthquake theorem is proved for the so called enhanced Teichmuller space. The case of spacetimes with conical timelike singularities is also treated.
We develop a ``canonical Wick rotation-rescaling theory in 3-dimensional gravity''. This includes: (a) A simultaneous classification that shows how generic maximal globally hyperbolic spacetimes of constant curvature, which admit a complete Cauchy surface (in particular a compact one), as well as complex projective structures on arbitrary surfaces, are all encoded by pairs (H,L), H being a ``straight convex sets'' in the hyperbolic plane, and L a ``measured geodesic laminations'' suitably defined on H. (b) Canonical geometric correlations: spacetimes of different curvature, that share a same encoding pair (H,L), are related to each other by ``canonical rescaling''; they can be transformed by ``canonical Wick rotations'' in hyperbolic 3-manifolds, that carry asymptotically the corresponding projective structures. Both Wick rotations and rescalings act along the "canonical cosmological time" and have ``universal rescaling functions''. These correlations are functorial with respect to isomorphisms of the respective geometric categories. We analyze the behaviour along a ray of measured laminations, (broken) T-symmetry by spacetimes of negative curvature, the relationship with ``earthquake theory'', beyond the case of compact Cauchy surface. WR-rescaling does apply on the ``ends'' of geometrically finite hyperbolic 3-manifolds, that hence realize concrete interactions of their globally hyperbolic ``ending spacetimes'' of constant curvature. It also provides further "classical amplitudes" of these interactions, beyond the volume of the hyperbolic convex cores.
The space ML(F) of measured geodesic laminations on a given closed hyperbolic surface F has a canonical linear structure arising in fact from different sources in 2-dimensional hyperbolic (earthquake theory) or complex projective (grafting) geometry as well as in (2+1) Lorentzian one (globally hyperbolic spacetimes of constant curvature). We investigate this linear structure, by showing in particular how heavily it depends on the geometric structure of F, whle to many other extens ML(F) depends only on the topology of F. This is already manifest when we describe in geometric terms the sum of two measured geodesic laminations in the simplest non trivial case of two weighted simple closed geodesics that meet each other at one point.
"Ends of hyperbolic 3-manifolds should support canonical Wick Rotations, so they realize effective interactions of their ending globally hyperbolic spacetimes of constant curvature." We develop a consistent sector of WR-rescaling theory in 3D gravity, that, in particular, concretizes the above guess for many geometrically finite manifolds. ML(H2)-spacetimes are solutions of pure Lorentzian 3D gravity encoded by measured geodesic laminations of the hyperbolic plane H2, possibly invariant by any given torsion-free discrete isometry group G. The rescalings which correlate spacetimes of different curvature, as well as the conformal Wick rotations towards hyperbolic structures, are directed by the gradient of the respective canonical cosmological times, and have universal rescaling functions that only depend on their value. We get an insight into the WR-rescaling mechanism by studying rays of ML(H2)-spacetimes emanating from the static case. In particular, we determine the "derivatives" at the starting point of each ray. We point out the tamest behaviour of the cocompact G case against the different general one, even when G is of cofinite area, but non-compact. We analyze brocken T-symmetry of AdS ML(H2)-spacetimes and related earthquake failure. This helps us to figure out the main lines of development in order to achieve a complete WR rescaling theory.
In this paper we study the flat (n+1)-spacetimes admitting a Cauchy surface diffeomorphic to a compact hyperbolic n-manifold. We show how to construct a canonical future complete one among all such spacetimes sharing the same holonomy. We study the geometry of such a spacetime in terms of its canonical cosmological time. In particular we study the asymptotic behaviour of the level surfaces of the cosmological time. The present work generalizes the case n=2 treated by Mess, taking from a work of Benedetti and Guadagnini the emphasis on the fundamental role played by the canonical cosmological time.