We define the notion of geodesic completeness for semi-Riemannian metrics of low regularity in the framework of the geometric theory of generalized functions. We then show completeness of a wide class of impulsive gravitational wave space-times.
Type A surfaces are the locally homogeneous affine surfaces which can be locally described by constant Christoffel symbols. We address the issue of the geodesic completeness of these surfaces: we show that some models for Type A surfaces are geodesically complete, that some others admit an incomplete geodesic but model geodesically complete surfaces, and that there are also others which do not model any complete surface. Our main result provides a way of determining whether a given set of constant Christoffel symbols can model a complete surface.
In this paper we investigate geodesic completeness of left-invariant Lorentzian metrics on a simple Lie group $G$ when there exists a left-invariant Killing vector field $Z$ on $G$. Among other results, it is proved that if $Z$ is timelike, or $G$ is strongly causal and $Z$ is lightlike, then the metric is complete. We then consider the special complex Lie group $SL_2(mathbb{C})$ in more details and show that the existence of a lightlike vector field $Z$ on it, implies geodesic completeness. We also consider the existence of a spacelike vector field $Z$ on $SL_2(mathbb{C})$ and provide an equivalent condition for the metric to be complete. This illustrates the complexity of the situation when $Z$ is spacelike.
We consider restrictions placed by geodesic completeness on spacetimes possessing a null parallel vector field, the so-called Brinkmann spacetimes. This class of spacetimes includes important idealized gravitational wave models in General Relativity, namely the plane-fronted waves with parallel rays, or pp-waves, which in turn have been intensely and fruitfully studied in the mathematical and physical literatures for over half a century. More concretely, we prove a restricted version of a conjectural analogue for Brinkmann spacetimes of a rigidity result obtained by M.T. Anderson for stationary spacetimes. We also highlight its relation with a long-standing 1962 conjecture by Ehlers and Kundt. Indeed, it turns out that the subclass of Brinkmann spacetimes we consider in our main theorem is enough to settle an important special case of the Ehlers-Kundt conjecture in terms of the well known class of Cahen-Wallach spaces.
We present a criterion for the stochastic completeness of a submanifold in terms of its distance to a hypersurface in the ambient space. This relies in a suitable version of the Hessian comparison theorem. In the sequel we apply a comparison principle with geometric barriers for establishing mean curvature estimates for stochastically complete submanifolds in Riemannian products, Riemannian submersions and wedges. These estimates are applied for obtaining both horizontal and vertical half-space theorems for submanifolds in $mathbb{H}^n times mathbb{R}^ell$.
In this paper, we establish a generalized maximum principle for pseudo-Hermitian manifolds. As corollaries, Omori-Yau type maximum principles for pseudo-Hermitian manifolds are deduced. Moreover, we prove that the stochastic completeness for the heat semigroup generated by the sub-Laplacian is equivalent to the validity of a weak form of the generalized maximum principles. Finally, we give some applications of these generalized maximum principles.