Characteristic initial data and wavefront singularities in general relativity

8 February 1983

journal article
research article
Published by The Royal Society in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences

Vol. 385 (1789) , 345-371
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1983.0018

Abstract

The structure of singularities (caustics), self-intersections of wavefronts (null hypersurfaces) and wavefront families (null coordinates) in arbitrary space-times is discussed in detail and illustrated by explicit examples of stable wavefront singularities in Minkowski space. It is shown how characteristic initial data determine the caustics and the self-intersections of the characteristics of Einstein's field equations.

Keywords

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