The geometrical meaning of time

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Abstract

It is stated in many text books that the any metric appearing in general relativity should be locally Lorentzian i.e. of the type η μν = diag(1,-1,-1,-1) this is usually presented as an independent axiom of the theory, which can not be deduced from other assumptions. The meaning of this assertion is that a specific coordinate (the temporal coordinate) is given a unique significance with respect to the other spatial coordinates. In this work it is shown that the above assertion is a consequence of requirement that the metric of empty space should be linearly stable and need not be assumed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)489-497
Number of pages9
JournalFoundations of Physics
Volume38
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2008

Keywords

  • General relativity
  • Stability of solutions

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