Causality in (2+1)-dimensional gravity

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Abstract
A method is presented to characterize fully the evolution of an arbitrary set of spinless particles in (unquantized) (2+1)-dimensional gravity theory. The method produces a complete series of time ordered Cauchy surfaces, which are being triangulated. By construction, closed timelike curves never arise, even if the initial conditions contain a Gott pair. In particular the author's construction shows that the configuration proposed by Carrol et al. (1992) in which a Gott pair is formed in a closed universe, nevertheless does not admit closed timelike curves; this universe has a finite lifetime, ending in a 'big crunch'.