arXiv subjects

Omar Zoghlami

Publications and source records attributed to Omar Zoghlami.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Null distance on cosmological spacetimes and monotone convergence

The metric theory of spacetimes studies Lorentzian manifolds using tools of metric geometry. This is achieved via the null distance, which is a definite distance constructed from a time function on a spacetime. This enables the study of Gromov-Hausdorff-type convergence of spacetimes, a program recently initiated by Sakovich and Sormani. In this paper we study such notions of convergence for cosmological spacetimes with compact slices, i.e., $(a,b)\times M$ endowed with a Lorentzian metric $-dt^2+h_t$, where $h_t$ is a family of Riemannian metrics on the compact manifold $M$. Assuming mild extension properties of $h_t$, we first establish that these spacetimes are causally-null compactifiable and future developed. We then study monotone sequences with a uniform upper bound on the spatial diameter, obtaining uniform convergence of the null distances, as well as convergence of the associated timed metric spaces in the future developed Gromov-Hausdorff sense. Finally, we prove that causally-null compactifiable spacetimes satisfying a mild causal accessibility condition are causally-null, and relate the causally-null distance induced by the limit distance with the null distance induced by the (possibly non-smooth) limit metric tensor. Examples are provided to motivate the necessity of our hypotheses.

math.DG↗

arXiv2026

Constant mean curvature surfaces in the sub-Lorentzian Heisenberg group

We study constant horizontal mean curvature surfaces in the sub-Lorentzian Heisenberg group. We derive the first-variation formula for horizontal area under volume-preserving radial variations and show that smooth isoperimetric candidates have constant horizontal mean curvature away from the characteristic set. We then give a complete classification of smooth boost-symmetric constant mean curvature surfaces: their characteristic sets, causal behaviour, and ambient sub-Lorentzian isometry classes. From this classification, we single out a family of smooth, acausal, boost-symmetric surfaces with nonzero constant mean curvature. Written as a two-sheeted graph over the exterior of a future hyperbola, this family is a natural sub-Lorentzian analogue of the Pansu bubbles and leads us to conjecture that it gives the isoperimetric maximisers in the sub-Lorentzian Heisenberg group.

math.DG↗

arXiv2025

Conformal transformations of metric spaces and Lorentzian pre-length spaces

We introduce conformal transformations in the synthetic setting of metric spaces and Lorentzian (pre-)length spaces. Our main focus lies on the Lorentzian case, where, motivated by the need to extend classical notions to spaces of low regularity, we provide the first consistent notion of conformal length, and analyse its fundamental properties. We prove that the conformal time separation function $τ_Ω$ (and the causal structure it induces) yields a Lorentzian pre-length structure if the original space is intrinsic and strongly causal. This allows us to construct a notion of conformal transformation between spaces within this class, yielding an equivalence relation. As applications, we show that the conformal length functional agrees with the standard conformal length of (strongly causal) spacetimes. We also prove conformal invariance of angles and causality conditions, give a characterisation of global hyperbolicity via finiteness of $τ_Ω$ for all conformal factors, and establish the behaviour of the Lorentzian Hausdorff measure defined in [MS22a] under conformal changes. Moreover, we apply the same methods to the metric case, which is of interest in its own right. This is exemplified by proving an analog of the Nomizu--Ozeki theorem for metric length spaces, which has the advantage that the resulting complete space is conformally related to the original space.

math.DG↗

arXiv2025

Hausdorff dimension and failure of synthetic curvature bounds in the sub-Lorentzian Heisenberg group

We study the geodesics, Hausdorff dimension, and curvature bounds of the sub-Lorentzian Heisenberg group. Through an elementary variational approach, we provide a new proof of the structure of its maximizing geodesics, showing that they are lifts of hyperbolae coming from a Lorentzian isoperimetric problem in the Minkowski plane. We prove that the Lorentzian Hausdorff dimension of the space is $4$ and that the corresponding measure coincides with the Haar measure. We further establish a novel result in the spirit of the Ball-Box theorem, giving a uniform estimate of causal diamonds by anisotropic boxes. Finally, we show that the Heisenberg group satisfies neither the timelike curvature-dimension condition $\mathsf{TCD}(K,N)$ nor the timelike measure contraction property $\mathsf{TMCP}(K,N)$ for any values of the parameters $K$ and $N$, in sharp contrast with its sub-Riemannian counterpart.

math.DG↗