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An asymptotically flat spacetime approaches Minkowski spacetime sufficiently far from isolated sources. At null infinity this is stated invariantly by requiring a smooth conformal completion whose boundary contains future and past null infinity.

A conformal compactification realizes a noncompact metric space as a dense open subset of a compact space whose metric on that subset is conformally related to the original one. Its smoothness and boundary interpretation depend on the example. Conformal compactification of Euclidean space adds one point to four-space; Projective Minkowski compactification adds a null cone. A regular null-boundary conformal completion and a projective compactification need not have the same global topology or causal covering convention.

The radial part of the Minkowski metric becomes $-dudv$, and $r=(v-u)/2$. With $u=\tan p$, $v=\tan q$ and the positive conformal factor $\Omega =2\cos p\cos q$, multiplication by ${\Omega }^2$ givesConsequently the Minkowski conformal compactification isThe spatial metric $d{R}^2+{\sin }^{2}Rd{\Sigma }^2$ is the round unit three-sphere. The extended unphysical metric is therefore that of the Einstein static universe, $\mathbb{R}\times S^3$ with unit spatial radius. Physical Minkowski spacetime occupies only the diamond-shaped causal patch of this cylinder, or a triangle after restricting to nonnegative spherical radius; it is not the whole cylinder.

The complete coordinate ranges and joint restrictions areThe polar angles have the usual coordinate degeneracies at their poles and at $r=0$. In the extended Einstein static universe one may let $T\in \mathbb{R}$ and $0\le R\le \pi$, but these are not the ranges of the original physical patch. In its interior $\Omega >0$. The line $R=0$ is the regular centre $r=0$, not a component of infinity.

The conformal completion has future timelike infinity $i^{+}=(\pi ,0)$, past timelike infinity $i^{-}=(-\pi ,0)$, and spacelike infinity $i^0=(0,\pi )$. The open sloping boundaries arenamely future null infinity and past null infinity. Each ordinary interior point of the radial diagram represents a two-sphere, and each point on either open null boundary represents a two-sphere of null directions.

A timelike geodesic is an inertial worldline $\mathbf{x}=\mathbf{b}+\mathbf{\beta }t$ with $|\mathbf{\beta }|<1$. As $t\to +\infty$, both $t-r$ and $t+r$ tend to $+\infty$, giving $p,q\to \pi /2$ and endpoint $i^{+}$. At past infinity both tend to $-\infty$, giving $i^{-}$. These endpoints are reached at infinite physical proper time, although at finite conformal coordinate time $T$. A null geodesic has $r\sim |t|$. In its outgoing future, $u$ approaches a finite retarded time while $v\to +\infty$, giving an endpoint on ${\mathcal{I}}^{+}$; in its incoming past, $v$ has a finite limit and $u\to -\infty$, giving an endpoint on ${\mathcal{I}}^{-}$. A spacelike geodesic is a straight line with spatial tangent larger than its temporal tangent, so $u\to -\infty$, $v\to +\infty$ at either end and both endpoints are $i^0$ in the compactified radial description. All these physical geodesics are complete. Only the unparametrized null geodesics are necessarily preserved as geodesics of the unphysical metric; timelike and spacelike images need not be its geodesics.

For horizons, distinguish a property of the spacetime from a property of an observer or of an initial-data hypersurface. Complete inertial observers have no particle horizon: in the flat cosmological slicing $a(t)=1$, the past light-travel distance ${\int }_{-\infty }^{t_0}dt$ is infinite. There is no finite-age initial singularity truncating communication between comoving observers. This statement does not say that an event receives signals from spacelike-separated events at the same time.

There is also no black-hole event horizon, because every event can send a future-directed null ray to future null infinity. Nevertheless accelerated timelike observers can have both future and past observer event horizons. For an entire observer worldline $\gamma$, define them by $H_{\gamma }^{+}=\partial I^{-}(\gamma )$ and $H_{\gamma }^{-}=\partial I^{+}(\gamma )$, using its complete future and past respectively. An inertial observer's chronological past and future of the whole worldline are both all of Minkowski spacetime. By contrast, for the uniformly accelerated worldline in a Cartesian spatial direction,its null coordinates obey $t-x=-a^{-1}{e}^{-a\tau }<0$ and $t+x=a^{-1}{e}^{a\tau }>0$. An event with $t-x<0$ can signal to a sufficiently late point of this worldline, whereas an event with $t-x\ge 0$ cannot; finite transverse displacements do not change that conclusion as $t+x\to \infty$. Similarly the worldline can signal to precisely the events with $t+x>0$. Thus its two observer event horizons areThey are the Rindler horizons, and their accessible common region is $x>|t|$. They do not indicate a curvature singularity or a failure of global predictability.

Finally Minkowski spacetime is a globally hyperbolic spacetime: every inextendible causal curve crosses each complete spacelike plane $t=t_0$ exactly once. Indeed $t$ is strictly monotone along future-directed causal curves, and the speed bound $|d\mathbf{x}/dt|\le 1$ prevents an inextendible curve from ending at finite $t$ by escaping to spatial infinity. Its time range is therefore all of $\mathbb{R}$. These planes are Cauchy hypersurfaces with full domain of dependence, so there are no Cauchy horizons associated with complete Cauchy data.

A Cauchy horizon is, however, defined relative to a specified initial surface. Under a literal existence reading of “admits”, non-Cauchy initial surfaces can have such horizons even in flat spacetime. For example the edgeless spacelike hyperboloid ${\Sigma }_a:t=\sqrt{a^2+r^2}$ has $D({\Sigma }_a)=\{t>r\}$. To see this, inside the future light cone $t-r$ and $t+r$ are positive and nondecreasing on future-directed causal curves. Their product $t^2-r^2$ increases past $a^2$ on every future-inextendible curve from below the hyperboloid; every past-inextendible curve from above it crosses down through $a^2$ before leaving the cone. Outside the cone there is an inextendible null curve avoiding the hyperboloid. The future light cone itself is its past Cauchy horizon. The time-reversed hyperboloid gives a future Cauchy horizon. This is the dependence of a Cauchy horizon on the initial hypersurface, not an intrinsic loss of predictability of full Minkowski spacetime. Thus a categorical claim that no choice of partial initial surface can ever have a Cauchy horizon would be too strong.

Start with the four-dimensional Minkowski metric $d{s}^2=-d{t}^2+d{r}^2+r^{2}d{\Omega }^2$, where $r\ge 0$. Choose an arbitrary length $L>0$, and use the retarded and advanced null coordinates $u=t-r$, $v=t+r$. For the Minkowski conformal compactification, setBoth $p,q$ lie between $-\pi /2$ and $\pi /2$. Since $v\ge u$, we have $R\ge 0$; the remaining inequalities are $|T|+R<\pi$. Moreover,Multiply by the square of the conformal factor ${\Omega }_c=2\cos p\cos q/L$. The resulting metric is regular on the appropriate boundary pieces and preserves the null directions. Suppressing the angular two-spheres gives a triangular Penrose diagram with radial null geodesics at $45$ degrees.

The line $R=0$ is the ordinary timelike centre $r=0$. The upper sloping edge $T+R=\pi$ is future null infinity, reached with $v\to +\infty$ and finite $u$; the lower sloping edge $T-R=-\pi$ is past null infinity, reached with $u\to -\infty$ and finite $v$. The vertices $(T,R)=(\pi ,0)$ and $(-\pi ,0)$ are future and past timelike infinity, denoted $i^{+}$ and $i^{-}$. The vertex $(0,\pi )$ is spacelike infinity, $i^0$. These are limiting endpoints in the conformal completion, rather than ordinary physical events. In particular, finite diagram coordinates at null infinity do not imply finite physical affine parameter.

The four-dimensional radial diagram is the triangle $R\ge 0$, $|T|+R\le \pi$. If one instead draws two-dimensional Minkowski spacetime with a signed Cartesian spatial coordinate, the diagram is the full diamond. The centre is a boundary of the radial quotient, not a boundary of the physical four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime.

Relative to a chosen asymptotically flat end, define the black hole region bywhere ${\mathcal{I}}^{+}$ is that end's future null infinity in a conformal completion. It consists of events unable to send a future causal signal to that infinity; its boundary is the corresponding future event horizon.

For $0<\alpha <r_0/2$, $h>0$ and $f<0$ on $r_{-}<r<r_{+}$. The gradient of $r$ has norm $g^{ab}{\nabla }_{a}r{\nabla }_{b}r=f$, so it is timelike there. Use the future extension regular in the ingoing coordinates above, reached by an exterior future ingoing null geodesic with $\dot{r}=-E\sqrt{h}<0$. This determines $\nabla r$ to be future timelike in the inter-horizon block. Every nonzero future causal tangent $V$ therefore obeysAt the future outer horizon the gradient becomes future null and gives the corresponding one-way inequality $dr/d\lambda \le 0$. No future signal can cross that horizon outward to the selected exterior. The future inter-horizon block is consequently within $\mathcal{B}$; a future-directed path can leave it only through the inner horizon, not return through the outer horizon to the selected infinity.

This statement requires a branch and an end. The maximal extension also contains time-reversed inter-horizon blocks, where future-directed curves have increasing $r$ and emerge into an exterior: they are white holes, not the selected black hole region. Thus the unqualified claim for every copy of $r_{-}<r<r_{+}$ in an arbitrary extension is false. Analytic continuation past a Cauchy horizon can also introduce other asymptotic ends; the displayed definition explicitly refers to the chosen component of infinity.

To sketch the causal structure, suppress the spacelike $\psi$ circle by its orbit-space projection. The induced three-dimensional metric tensor isThe causal projection along a spacelike circular fiber is exact: any causal curve projects to a $q$-causal curve, and every base curve has a lift $d\psi =\Omega dt$ with exactly its base norm. The diagrams therefore represent this two-dimensional orbit space, not a constant-$\psi$ slice of the three-dimensional submanifold.

There are three nonextremal block types. For $r>r_{+}$, $r_{\ast }$ spans the full real line from the outer horizon to infinity, producing an exterior diamond. For $r_{-}<r<r_{+}$, $r_{\ast }$ spans the full line with the time and space roles reversed; these diamonds contain the future black-hole or past white-hole branches. For $0<r<r_{-}$, $r_{\ast }$ is finite at zero and diverges at the inner horizon, producing a static half-diamond with a timelike singular edge. The supplied Kretschmann scalar diverges as $384{\alpha }^4{r}_0^4/r^{12}$ at $r=0$, and $f>0$ on the inner side, so that edge is a genuine timelike curvature singularity. In contrast, both horizon radii are regular in horizon-adapted coordinates.

The finite strip shows two exterior levels, a future trapped block, an inner static level with timelike singularities, and the next emerging block. Continuing through the inner Cauchy horizons repeats this pattern upward and downward in the maximal analytic extension. The inner boundary is not a spacelike Schwarzschild-type singularity. Such an ideal extension need not describe a physical collapse past its unstable inner horizon.

At $\alpha =r_0/2$, put $R=r_0/\sqrt{2}$. Then $r_{+}=r_{-}=R$, $f=(r^2-R^2{)}^2/r^4$, and the interval $r_{-}<r<r_{+}$ is empty. The lapse is positive on both sides, so there is no inter-horizon trapped diamond. The horizon is a degenerate Killing horizon, with $\kappa =0$. In the exterior $r_{\ast }\to -\infty$ as $r\downarrow R$, while inside $r_{\ast }\to +\infty$ as $r\uparrow R$; more precisely its leading pole is $-\sqrt{2}{R}^2/[4(r-R)]$. Static proper distance to the horizon is infinite. Future ingoing rays still cross it at finite affine parameter, as the regular ingoing metric tensor shows.

The extremal sketch gives the exterior diamond and singular interior half-diamond, with the complete gluing prescription: the exterior future horizon attaches to the interior past horizon; the interior future horizon attaches to the past horizon of another exterior. Repeating these attachments gives the maximal extension. The marked throat endpoints are conformal ideal endpoints, not bifurcation points of the spacetime. This block representation avoids incorrectly treating the extremal geometry as two transverse horizons with a collapsed trapped region.

Given an asymptotically flat spacetime with a conformal completion and future null infinity ${\mathcal{I}}^{+}$, its black hole region isThe event horizon is its boundary. For the magnetically charged dilaton black hole, first assume $0\le a=r_{-}<b=r_{+}$. The physical asymptotic component has $r>a$, and the ingoing chart extends regularly across $r=b$. Its future ingoing null direction is $-{\partial }_r$. For $a<r<b$,Hence $\nabla r$ is future timelike. Every nonzero future causal tangent $X$ satisfies $X(r)=g(\nabla r,X)<0$. A future causal curve from this interior can neither cross back to $r=b$ nor reach the asymptotic end $r\to \infty$, so it cannot reach ${\mathcal{I}}^{+}$. It lies in $\mathcal{B}$.

This proof uses the future black-hole extension. The radial interval alone does not distinguish it from the past white hole interior of the maximal extension; that interior has the same interval and can send signals to infinity. Thus the statement needs this future-component qualification if the maximal spacetime is intended.

The Kretschmann scalar confirms that $r=a$ is a genuine curvature singularity: for $0<a<b$, its numerator at $r=a$ is $3a^4(a-b{)}^2$, andFor $a=0$ it instead reduces to $12b^2/r^6$. Since $V<0$ on approaching the singularity from the interior, the singularity is spacelike. At $r=b>a$ the curvature is finite.

For the maximal extension, take $U=-e^{-u/(2b)}$, $W=e^{v/(2b)}$ in the right exterior and continue analytically across the horizons. ThenThe singularity is $UW=(1-a/b)e^{a/b}>0$ and the horizons are $U=0$ and $W=0$. Rescaling the null coordinates by the square root of this positive constant before arctangent compactification produces the usual qualitative Penrose diagram of Schwarzschild spacetime: two exteriors, a future black-hole region, a past white-hole region, and future and past spacelike singularities. The dashed lines below are the horizon branches; only the future interior is the black-hole region.

If $a>b$, the physical domain remains $r>a$, but now $V>0$ throughout it. The apparent zero $r=b$ is beyond the curvature singularity and is not an accessible horizon. The singularity is timelike, and outgoing radial null rays with $\dot{r}=E>0$ escape to infinity from arbitrarily near it. ThusThe excluded equality $r_{-}=r_{+}$ is a singular limiting case, not a regular horizon. These facts describe the causal structure of the magnetic dilaton black hole.

Four distinct points in a conformal field theory with $d>2$ possess two independent conformal cross-ratios, conventionallyTranslations, rotations, dilations, and special conformal transformations can map three points to canonical positions $0$, a point on one chosen axis, and the point at infinity in a conformal completion. The fourth point retains one radial coordinate and one angle relative to that axis. Those two quantities are equivalent to $u$ and $v$; the stabilizer rotations remove all its remaining angular coordinates.

For identical scalar primary operators of dimension $\Delta$, conformal covariance fixes a kinematic prefactor and leaves an arbitrary function $\mathcal{G}(u,v)$:for one common convention. Since a generic conformal field theory has unrestricted dynamical dependence on both cross-ratios, no lower-dimensional set determines the function. Therefore

An asymptotically flat spacetime at future null infinity admits a smooth conformal completion $(\overline{\mathcal{M}},\bar{g})$ with the following properties. The physical spacetime $\mathcal{M}$ is the interior of $\overline{\mathcal{M}}$, its metric obeysand the boundary component ${\mathcal{I}}^{+}$ satisfies $\Omega =0$ and $d\Omega \ne 0$. Every future-directed outgoing null geodesic has an endpoint there, the generators of ${\mathcal{I}}^{+}$ are complete, and in four spacetime dimensions ${\mathcal{I}}^{+}\simeq \mathbb{R}\times S^2$. The physical Einstein field equations are vacuum in a neighborhood of this boundary.

Let $n_a={\bar{\nabla }}_a\Omega$. Multiplying the supplied conformal Ricci relation by ${\Omega }^2$, using $R_{ab}=0$, and taking the limit to ${\mathcal{I}}^{+}$ givesThe boundary normal is therefore null. Since a null normal is also tangent to its hypersurface, $n^a$ generates ${\mathcal{I}}^{+}$.

Smoothness makes $s={\Omega }^{-1}{n}^2$ finite at the boundary. Multiplication of the same vacuum equation by $\Omega$ gives thereTaking the trace yields $s=\frac{1}{2}\bar{\square }\Omega$, and substitution givesThe remaining freedom $\Omega \mapsto \omega \Omega$ can be used to impose $\bar{\square }\Omega =0$ on ${\mathcal{I}}^{+}$. In this conformal gauge, ${\bar{\nabla }}_a{n}_b=0$ there, so the generators are affinely parametrized, expansion-free null geodesics of the unphysical metric.

Choose a generator coordinate $u$, the defining function $\Omega$, and angular coordinates $x^A$ whose leading metric $q_{AB}$ is the round metric on the unit sphere. After the conformal and coordinate choices above, the leading unphysical metric iswith the Minkowski term $-{\Omega }^{2}d{u}^2$ entering at the next relevant order. Setting $r={\Omega }^{-1}$ recovers the physical asymptotic formThe displayed leading metric is Minkowski spacetime in outgoing null coordinates. Smooth conformal extendibility controls the lower-order corrections, while the vacuum equations constrain them to the radiative Bondi--Sachs expansion. This is the precise sense in which the permitted spacetimes approach Minkowski spacetime near ${\mathcal{I}}^{+}$ while still allowing outgoing gravitational radiation.

A spacelike geodesic has positive tangent norm in signature $(-+++)$ and satisfies the geodesic equation with an affine parameter. Metric compatibility preserves that norm along the curve. In Minkowski spacetime these are straight lines whose spatial tangent is larger in magnitude than the time component; their two ends approach spacelike infinity in a conformal completion.

Future and past timelike infinity are ideal endpoints of asymptotically escaping timelike trajectories in a conformal completion. For the Minkowski conformal compactification, they are the vertices $(T,R)=(\pi ,0)$ and $(-\pi ,0)$; these vertices are not physical spacetime events.