Lorentzian metric ($\mathrm{signature}(g)=(-,+,\dots ,+)$)

A Lorentzian metric is a smooth nondegenerate symmetric metric tensor with one negative and all other positive directions, or its opposite-sign convention. At each point, a nonzero tangent is timelike, null or spacelike according as $g(v,v)$ is negative, zero or positive in the first convention. Unlike a Riemannian metric, it gives a light cone rather than a positive norm. Minkowski spacetime is its constant flat model, and proper time along a timelike curve is $\int \sqrt{-g(\dot{\gamma },\dot{\gamma })}du$.

A null coordinate is a coordinate function $u$ whose gradient is null, $g^{ab}{\partial }_{a}u{\partial }_{b}u=0$. Its level sets are null hypersurfaces. Pairs of such coordinates straighten radial null directions in two-dimensional orbit metrics; a monotone reparametrization of either function preserves its null level sets. Examples include the retarded and advanced null coordinates and the radial Kruskal–Szekeres coordinates.

With metric signature $(-,+,+,+)$, a nonzero vector $v$ is spacelike when its Lorentzian inner product with itself satisfies $g(v,v)>0$. In Minkowski spacetime, this means its spatial components have larger squared Euclidean length than its time component. The classification is preserved by Lorentz transformations. A timelike vector has negative squared Lorentzian inner product, and a null vector has zero squared Lorentzian inner product.

A Lorentzian inner product is a nondegenerate symmetric bilinear form with one negative and the remaining positive eigenvalues in the mostly-plus convention. Two nonzero future causal vectors have nonpositive inner product; if either is timelike, it is strictly negative.

A nonzero covector $\ell$ is null when its squared dual Lorentzian inner product is zero: $g^{\alpha \beta }{\ell }_{\alpha }{\ell }_{\beta }=0$. Raising its index gives a null vector. Null covectors describe normals to characteristic light cones and are the test directions in the classical null condition for wave equations.

A nonzero causal vector is timelike or null: $g(v,v)\le 0$ with metric signature $(-,+,+,+)$. The zero vector is commonly included when stating the dominant energy condition.

A timelike vector $v$ obeys $g(v,v)<0$ in metric signature $(-,+,+,+)$. Its orthogonal complement has positive-definite metric; the two timelike cones give the local future and past choices.

A timelike vector field assigns a timelike vector continuously or smoothly to every event in its domain. A globally defined such field gives a time orientation, but it need not be a Killing vector field or a timelike geodesic vector field.