Areal radius 2026-10-06
In a spherically symmetric spacetime, the areal radius is defined by the area of each symmetry sphere. It is independent of which radial coordinate chart is used.
Finkelstein diagram 2026-10-06
A Finkelstein diagram plots areal radius against in Ingoing Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates. Its radial null directions show explicitly that both future light-ray families decrease inside a Schwarzschild black hole. It is not a compactified Penrose diagram.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 311 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
A future trapped surface is a smooth compact spacelike two-surface without boundary whose two future-directed orthogonal null expansions are strictly negative. In four-dimensional general relativity, the Penrose singularity theorem states: a time-oriented globally hyperbolic spacetime with a noncompact Cauchy hypersurface, a trapped surface, and the null convergence condition for every null vector is future null-geodesically incomplete. With the Einstein field equations, the null energy condition implies this null convergence condition; a cosmological constant drops out of the null contraction.
The Kruskal spacetime is an example. In its black hole interior, use future null normals in Ingoing Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates:For a round sphere of areal radius , its area is and its null expansions areBoth are negative for . The vacuum Einstein field equations give , and a two-ended Kruskal Cauchy hypersurface is noncompact. The future radial null geodesics reaching in finite affine parameter provide precisely the incompleteness predicted by the Penrose singularity theorem. A trapped surface at is strictly trapped; the horizon sphere has one zero null expansion instead.