nLab Penrose singularity theorem

Contents

Context

Gravity

Physics

physics, mathematical physics, philosophy of physics

Surveys, textbooks and lecture notes


theory (physics), model (physics)

experiment, measurement, computable physics

Contents

Idea

The Penrose-Hawking singularity theorems characterize spacetimes in the theory of Einstein-gravity (general relativity) which have “singularities”, points where the Riemann curvature is undefined (or would be undefined if these points were included in the spacetime manifold) such as appears notably in black hole spacetimes.

Hellman suggest this theorem as an example of noncomputable physics. See Frank for a response.

A related problem is that of the maximal Cauchy development for the Einstein equations. In this case, at least Zorn's lemma can be avoided.

References

The original article:

  • Stephen Hawking?, Roger Penrose, The Nature of Space and Time Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-03791-4. (1996)

Review:

See also:

For further developments see

In view of constructive mathematics:

  • Geoffrey Hellman, Mathematical constructivism in spacetime, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 49 (3):425-450 (1998) PDF

  • Matthew Frank, Axioms and aesthetics in constructive mathematics and differential geometry. PhD-thesis, Chicago, 2004.

  • Jan Sbierski, On the Existence of a Maximal Cauchy Development for the Einstein Equations - a Dezornification PDF

Last revised on August 18, 2021 at 10:53:42. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.