The Cosmological Time Function
Let $(M,g)$ be a time oriented Lorentzian manifold and $d$ the Lorentzian distance on $M$. The function $τ(q):=\sup_{p< q} d(p,q)$ is the cosmological time function of $M$, where as usual $p< q$ means that $p$ is in the causal past of $q$. This function is called regular iff $τ(q) < \infty$ for all $q$ and also $τ\to 0$ along every past inextendible causal curve. If the cosmological time function $τ$ of a space time $(M,g)$ is regular it has several pleasant consequences: (1) It forces $(M,g)$ to be globally hyperbolic, (2) every point of $(M,g)$ can be connected to the initial singularity by a rest curve (i.e., a timelike geodesic ray that maximizes the distance to the singularity), (3) the function $τ$ is a time function in the usual sense, in particular (4) $τ$ is continuous, in fact locally Lipschitz and the second derivatives of $τ$ exist almost everywhere.