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The Kruskal spacetime is the maximal analytic extension of the positive-mass vacuum Schwarzschild spacetime. It contains two exterior regions, a black hole, and a white hole. Kruskal–Szekeres coordinates remove both horizon coordinate singularities, while $r=0$ remains a curvature singularity.

A maximal analytic extension of an analytic spacetime is an analytic spacetime extension admitting no further proper analytic extension as a regular spacetime of the same dimension. It is different from a maximal Cauchy development, which can end at a smooth Cauchy horizon. Additional global choices or quotients can affect uniqueness. The simply connected extension of positive-mass Schwarzschild spacetime through both horizons is the Kruskal spacetime; its curvature singularities remain boundaries.

Use geometrized units $G=c=1$ and positive mass $M$. The Schwarzschild metric initially describes an exterior region, not the whole black hole:Here $r$ is the areal radius and $t$ is Schwarzschild time, normalized at infinity. We must distinguish a removable coordinate singularity from a genuine curvature singularity. The Kretschmann scalar isIt is finite at $r=2M$ and diverges at $r=0$. Thus $r=2M$ can be crossed in a better chart, whereas $r=0$ cannot be made a regular point by changing the coordinate chart.

First integrate the Schwarzschild tortoise coordinate:The radial metric becomes $f(-d{t}^2+d{r}_{\ast }^2)$. Set $v=t+r_{\ast }$; the ingoing Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates giveThe radial block has determinant minus one and smooth coefficients at $r=2M$, so it extends through the future Schwarzschild event horizon. Its ingoing radial null geodesics have constant $v$, while the outgoing radial null geodesics obey $dr/dv=f/2$. In the future interior both future-directed radial null families decrease $r$; $r=0$ is therefore an unavoidable future boundary for causal motion there. The outgoing chart $u=t-r_{\ast }$ similarly gives $d{s}^2=-fd{u}^2-2dudr+r^{2}d{\Omega }^2$, extending through the past horizon. A single one of these null charts does not display both horizons or the entire extension.

To regularize both horizons together, introduce Kruskal–Szekeres coordinates in the original exterior:ThenFor $r>0$ the right side defining $UV$ decreases monotonically from one to minus infinity. In fact its derivative is $-r{e}^{r/(2M)}/(4M^2)$. Thus it determines a unique smooth $r=r(UV)$ wherever $UV<1$, including $UV=0$. At $r=2M$ the radial metric coefficient is finite and nonzero, proving actual regularity of both horizons and their intersection, rather than merely relabelling the old coordinate divergence. Allowing all real $U,V$ with $UV<1$ produces the simply connected maximal analytic extension, the Kruskal spacetime.

There are four regions of the Kruskal spacetime. The original exterior is $U<0,V>0$; a second asymptotically flat exterior is $U>0,V<0$. The future black hole has $U>0,V>0$ and $0<r<2M$; the past white hole has $U<0,V<0$ and the same range of areal radius. The horizon branches are $U=0$ and $V=0$. Their intersection $U=V=0$ is a regular bifurcation surface, a two-sphere of radius $2M$, not the centre of the spacetime. Each point of the radial diagram represents a symmetry two-sphere.

Put $T_K=(V+U)/2$ and $X_K=(V-U)/2$. Radial null geodesics have slopes $d{T}_K=\pm d{X}_K$, and the curvature singularities haveThe upper branch is the future spacelike Schwarzschild singularity; the lower branch is the white hole past singularity. The Killing vector field extends as ${\partial }_t=(V{\partial }_V-U{\partial }_U)/(4M)$. It is future directed in the original exterior and past directed in the other exterior for the chosen global time orientation; inside, this stationary vector is spacelike. In the future interior, $r$ is a time coordinate decreasing toward the singularity. For example, a radial infaller of unit specific Killing energy obeys $dr/d\tau =-\sqrt{2M/r}$ and reaches $r=0$ from the horizon in finite proper time $4M/3$. The curvature divergence and this geodesic endpoint show why the extension stops there.

For the global causal picture, compactify the null coordinates using $p=\arctan U$, $q=\arctan V$ and let $\mathcal{T}=2(p+q)/\pi$, $\mathcal{X}=2(q-p)/\pi$. The conformal compactification rescales the metric to remove the coordinate factors from the radial metric while preserving its null directions. Since $UV=1$ gives $p+q=\pm \pi /2$ on the two singular branches, they become the horizontal lines $\mathcal{T}=\pm 1$. The resulting Penrose diagram displays the two exteriors, each with its own past null infinity, future null infinity and spatial infinity, plus the future and past interiors. The singularities are spacelike boundaries; the horizons are interior null surfaces. Future event horizons separate events that can escape to an exterior's future null infinity from events in the black-hole interior.

The time-symmetric spatial slice has a bridge between the exteriors, but it is not a traversable passage. Future-directed causal curves have nondecreasing $U$ and $V$. Moving from the right exterior to the left would require $V$ to decrease from positive to negative; the reverse passage would require $U$ to decrease. Both are impossible. This proves the non-traversability of the Schwarzschild bridge. The complete eternal vacuum extension has two exteriors, a black hole and a white hole; it has no causal route between its exteriors. A black hole made by stellar collapse is a different global spacetime: its matter-filled past replaces the white hole region, and it normally has only one exterior. The vacuum extension constructed here should not be mistaken for the collapse history of a single star.

With electric charge, spherical electrovacuum instead gives the Reissner-Nordstrom metric, in an electromagnetic normalization absorbing the charge conversion constants:For $0<|Q|<M$, there are two simple horizons. Outside $r_{+}$ the metric is static; between $r_{-}$ and $r_{+}$, $f<0$ and $r$ is timelike. Inside $r_{-}$, $f>0$ again, so $r$ is spacelike and the $r=0$ singularity is timelike. The outer horizon is the event horizon; the inner horizon is a Cauchy horizon. The same logarithmic tortoise-coordinate and exponential-null-coordinate method crosses each simple horizon locally, but one exponential scale does not regularize both simultaneously: their surface gravities have different magnitudes,Continuing the exact metric through successive inner horizons produces repeated blocks with further exteriors, and evolution beyond a Cauchy horizon is not uniquely fixed by data on the original Cauchy hypersurface. The timelike singularity can be avoided by some trajectories in this ideal extension, unlike the unavoidable spacelike singularity of the future Schwarzschild spacetime interior. However, the enormous inner-horizon blueshift makes this exact continuation unstable: perturbations can cause mass inflation. This is an important qualification on the global structure of a charged spherical black hole.

At $|Q|=M$ the two horizons coalesce, $f=(1-M/r{)}^2$ and surface gravity is zero. The horizon is a degenerate Killing horizon, the tortoise-coordinate divergence becomes a pole and the ordinary nondegenerate Kruskal spacetime construction must be replaced. The exterior develops an infinitely long spatial throat and the formal Hawking temperature vanishes. For $|Q|>M$, no real zero of $f$ remains: the electrovacuum solution has a naked singularity, not a black hole. Consequently arbitrarily allowing charge changes the causal structure, not just the horizon radius.

Assume $M>0$ and use geometric units. The stationary Killing vector field $K={\partial }_t$ gives the conserved Killing energy $E=-g(K,U)=f\dot{t}$. For radial motion, normalization of the four-velocity gives $-f{\dot{t}}^2+f^{-1}{\dot{r}}^2=-1$. Combining these identities yieldsAt rest at infinity, $f\to 1$ and $\dot{r}\to 0$, so $E=1$. Choose the inward branch $\dot{r}=-\sqrt{2M/r}$. Its proper time from the Schwarzschild event horizon to the curvature singularity isIn ordinary units this is $4GM/(3c^3)$. The endpoint $r=0$ is not a regular centre of the spacetime. This is the Schwarzschild horizon-to-singularity proper time for fall from infinity, rather than a universal time for all infall energies.

For this geodesic congruence, set $w(r)=\sqrt{2M/r}$. Its four-velocity and metric dual areThe right side is an exact one-form because $w/f$ depends only on $r$. Thus $U_a=-{\partial }_a\tau$, with free-fall proper time in Schwarzschild spacetime determined byIndeed $U^a{\partial }_a\tau =-U^a{U}_a=1$, so this scalar advances by the actual proper time on every member of the infalling geodesic congruence, with a synchronized choice of additive offsets.

Substitution of $dt=d\tau -w{f}^{-1}dr$ in the Schwarzschild metric givesUsing $f=1-w^2$, the Painlevé–Gullstrand coordinates therefore haveAll coefficients are finite at $r=2M$; the determinant of the $\tau ,r$ block is $-f-w^2=-1$. Hence the horizon is a coordinate singularity of Schwarzschild time, not a degeneracy of the metric. The new spatial slices have $d{\ell }^2=d{r}^2+r^{2}d{\Sigma }^2$, the flat Euclidean metric, and $g^{ab}{\partial }_a\tau {\partial }_b\tau =-1$ makes their normals the freely falling four-velocities. By contrast, the curvature scalar $R_{abcd}{R}^{abcd}=48M^2/r^6$ diverges at $r=0$; this genuine singularity is not removed.

For ingoing Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates, use $v=t+r_{\ast }$ with $d{r}_{\ast }/dr=f^{-1}$, for example $r_{\ast }=r+2M\log |r/(2M)-1|$. ThenBoth constructions cross the future horizon. Their time functions have different meanings: $v=\text{constant}$ is an ingoing null hypersurface, whereas $\tau =\text{constant}$ is a flat spacelike hypersurface orthogonal to the infallers. Thus the former is adapted to ingoing null geodesics, and the latter to a timelike free-fall clock congruence.

For the Kruskal diagram, choose Kruskal–Szekeres coordinates with $U_K=-e^{-(t-r_{\ast })/(4M)}$, $V_K=e^{(t+r_{\ast })/(4M)}$ in the right exterior and extend them across its horizon. They obeyThe four regions of Kruskal spacetime are I, the right exterior $(U_K<0,V_K>0)$; II, the future black hole $(U_K>0,V_K>0)$; III, the other exterior $(U_K>0,V_K<0)$; and IV, the past white hole $(U_K<0,V_K<0)$. The null axes are horizons, their intersection is the bifurcation two-sphere, and the spacelike boundaries $U_K{V}_K=1$ are the future and past curvature singularities. A point in this radial diagram represents a symmetry two-sphere.

The domain of the ingoing Painleve-Gullstrand chart is region I together with region II and their common future horizon. More precisely, it is $V_K>0$, $U_K{V}_K<1$, or $r>0$ with finite $\tau$. To verify the boundary rather than infer it from the locally regular metric, put $\rho =\sqrt{r/(2M)}$ and writeThis follows by subtracting $r_{\ast }$ from the preceding radial primitive, and $S$ is finite at $r=2M$. Thus $V_K=\exp [(\tau -S(r))/(4M)]>0$ throughout the chart. Conversely every point with $V_K>0$ and $r>0$ gives a finite $\tau$. The past horizon $V_K=0$, the bifurcation sphere, region III and region IV are absent. Reversing the sign of the radial term produces the outgoing chart through the white hole instead.

Use geometrized units $G=c=1$ and metric signature $(-,+,+,+)$. Put $f=1-2M/r$ in the Schwarzschild metric. The Schwarzschild tortoise coordinate satisfies $d{r}_{\ast }/dr=f^{-1}$, soSubstituting $dt=dv-f^{-1}dr$ gives the ingoing Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates:The radial metric tensor has determinant $-1$ and inverse components $g^{vv}=0$, $g^{vr}=1$, $g^{rr}=f$. Thus it is nondegenerate and analytic at $r=2M$. The same expression defines a Lorentzian metric for every $r>0$, extending the exterior across the future Schwarzschild event horizon into the black hole. It does not include the other exterior or the white hole of the full Kruskal spacetime. At $r=0$, the Kretschmann scalar $R_{abcd}{R}^{abcd}=48M^2/r^6$ diverges, so this is a curvature singularity, not a removable coordinate singularity.

A spacetime is geodesically complete if every maximal geodesic has an affine parameter ranging over all of $\mathbb{R}$. For timelike geodesics this is equivalent to unbounded proper time in both directions. An extendible geodesic segment can be prolonged in the same spacetime; an inextendible geodesic cannot. A finite coordinate endpoint need not imply finite affine parameter.

For the Kruskal spacetime, use $U,V$ withIn the right exterior $U<0<V$. A truncated ray $U=U_0<0$, $V_1<V<V_2$ is an extendible geodesic of radial null type: neither artificial endpoint is a spacetime boundary. A future ray $U=U_0>0$ in the black hole reaches $UV=1$, hence $r=0$, and is inextendible geodesic and future null-geodesically incomplete. Its Killing energy $E\ne 0$ gives $dr/d\lambda =-|E|$, so the Schwarzschild singularity occurs at finite affine parameter. The maximal continuation toward the past supplies the other half of this same null geodesic.

There is no inextendible, complete radial timelike geodesic in positive-mass Kruskal spacetime. This requested example is impossible as printed. For a radial timelike geodesic, the conserved Killing energy and normalization giveIf $E^2<1$, $r$ has at most one turning point, a maximum $r_{\max }=2M/(1-E^2)$; a maximal trajectory runs from the white hole Schwarzschild singularity to the Schwarzschild singularity. If $E^2\ge 1$, there is no finite turning point; one end can lie at infinity but the other reaches $r=0$. The exceptional $E=0$ trajectory through the bifurcation surface also reaches $r=0$ in both time directions. Near $r=0$,whose integral is finite. Constant-$r$ radial timelike curves are accelerated, not geodesics.

Two plausible repairs have different meanings. Removing “radial” permits a complete circular timelike geodesic at $r=R>6M$, with nonzero angular momentum and proper time ranging over $\mathbb{R}$. Replacing “timelike” by “null” permits a complete horizon null geodesic: $U=0$, $V\in \mathbb{R}$, with $V$ an affine parameter. The Penrose diagram shows both repairs explicitly, together with the two valid requested examples; the circular trajectory is only a radial projection and is labelled as nonradial.

The horizontal boundaries are the Schwarzschild singularities, diagonal dashed lines are the Killing horizons, and outer diagonal edges are null infinity.

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 $R_{ab}{k}^a{k}^b\ge 0$ 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 $r$, its area is $4\pi r^2$ and its null expansions areBoth are negative for $0<r<2M$. The vacuum Einstein field equations give $R_{ab}=0$, and a two-ended Kruskal Cauchy hypersurface is noncompact. The future radial null geodesics reaching $r=0$ in finite affine parameter provide precisely the incompleteness predicted by the Penrose singularity theorem. A trapped surface at $r<2M$ is strictly trapped; the horizon sphere has one zero null expansion instead.

Every maximal radial timelike geodesic in positive-mass Kruskal spacetime is incomplete in at least one direction. Its equations are ${\dot{r}}^2=E^2-1+2M/r$ and $\ddot{r}=-M/r^2$. A finite turning point is a maximum, and each trajectory reaches $r=0$ at one or both ends. The remaining proper time is finite because $d\tau \sim \sqrt{r/(2M)}dr$. Complete circular timelike geodesics exist, but they have nonzero angular momentum.