Bertotti-Robinson spacetime 2026-10-24
The simply connected Bertotti-Robinson geometry is the product of the universal cover of two-dimensional anti-de Sitter spacetime and a two-sphere with equal radius . In metric signature ,Its radial Penrose diagram is an infinite conformal strip of two-dimensional anti-de Sitter spacetime. The metric tensor is a patch of it, with . Its Killing vector field extends across alternating degenerate Killing horizons . Both factors are geodesically complete, giving a maximal analytic extension of this patch without periodic time identification.
Maximal analytic extension 2026-10-14
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.
Past exam of the general relativity II course of the University of Oxford 2021 3 c Solution 2026-10-25
First use the original null coordinates , . They obey , and the radial metric tensor becomesApply the given substitutions and . The identitiesgive the analytic extension of a spacetimeThe poles of the individual tangent and cotangent substitutions are now ordinary coordinate lines wherever . Set and . Allowing these coordinate functions to continue across every such line givesThis is the universal cover of two-dimensional anti-de Sitter spacetime of radius , times a two-sphere of radius : the simply connected Bertotti-Robinson spacetime. In defining this maximal analytic extension, ranges over the whole real line without periodic identification. A periodic identification would instead create closed timelike curves and would be an additional global choice.
For clarity, the original patch is embedded by the branches and . The inequality is equivalent on these branches to , so the original patch occupiesThe first spacetime extension in part (a) occupies the larger band , with . Its finite- Killing horizon is the interior line . The edges of that band are further regular Poincaré horizons; continuing through them produces the full conformal strip of two-dimensional anti-de Sitter spacetime.
The original coordinate has a smooth continuation throughout the strip:Consequently the complete set of zero-level Killing horizons isThese are two alternating families of parallel null lines; different families meet only at the excluded conformal boundaries, never inside the spacetime. The continuation of the original Killing vector field isThe field never vanishes in the interior, including on the Killing horizons.
To obtain the Penrose diagram, suppress the two-sphere and multiply by the conformal factor . The resulting radial metric tensor is , so the diagram is an infinitely tall strip of width , with null lines at 45 degrees and timelike edges . Generically,At the special edge points where the two families of Killing horizons end, the displayed formula is a limit and has no unique limiting value. Thus the infinity labels on the diagram refer to the open edge segments, not those vertices. Each interior point of the diagram represents a two-sphere of fixed radius ; neither edge is a centre where that two-sphere shrinks.
Penrose diagram of the maximal Bertotti-Robinson spacetime extension, with the original patch and all zero-level Killing horizons
. Details. Finally, these timelike edges are conformal boundaries, not omitted regular points of a further spacetime extension. One way to establish maximality is geodesic completeness. The two-dimensional anti-de Sitter spacetime factor embeds locally as in a flat space with metric signature . Along an affinely parametrized geodesic with constant , the ambient equation isIts oscillatory, linear or hyperbolic solutions for negative, zero or positive exist for all real affine parameters and lift to the universal cover. The two-sphere is also geodesically complete, and geodesics of the product split into geodesics of its factors. Hence is geodesically complete. A proper regular spacetime extension would furnish a geodesic reaching its boundary in finite affine parameter, contradicting that completeness. This proves that the displayed simply connected analytic spacetime is maximal.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 62 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-18
Use geometrized units and positive mass . The Schwarzschild metric initially describes an exterior region, not the whole black hole:Here is the areal radius and 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 and diverges at . Thus can be crossed in a better chart, whereas cannot be made a regular point by changing the coordinate chart.
First integrate the Schwarzschild tortoise coordinate:The radial metric becomes . Set ; the ingoing Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates giveThe radial block has determinant minus one and smooth coefficients at , so it extends through the future Schwarzschild event horizon. Its ingoing radial null geodesics have constant , while the outgoing radial null geodesics obey . In the future interior both future-directed radial null families decrease ; is therefore an unavoidable future boundary for causal motion there. The outgoing chart similarly gives , 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 the right side defining decreases monotonically from one to minus infinity. In fact its derivative is . Thus it determines a unique smooth wherever , including . At 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 with produces the simply connected maximal analytic extension, the Kruskal spacetime.
There are four regions of the Kruskal spacetime. The original exterior is ; a second asymptotically flat exterior is . The future black hole has and ; the past white hole has and the same range of areal radius. The horizon branches are and . Their intersection is a regular bifurcation surface, a two-sphere of radius , not the centre of the spacetime. Each point of the radial diagram represents a symmetry two-sphere.
Put and . Radial null geodesics have slopes , 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 . 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, is a time coordinate decreasing toward the singularity. For example, a radial infaller of unit specific Killing energy obeys and reaches from the horizon in finite proper time . The curvature divergence and this geodesic endpoint show why the extension stops there.
For the global causal picture, compactify the null coordinates using , and let , . The conformal compactification rescales the metric to remove the coordinate factors from the radial metric while preserving its null directions. Since gives on the two singular branches, they become the horizontal lines . 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.
Kruskal and compactified diagrams of the maximal Schwarzschild extension, showing both exteriors, horizons and spacelike singularities
. Details. The time-symmetric spatial slice has a bridge between the exteriors, but it is not a traversable passage. Future-directed causal curves have nondecreasing and . Moving from the right exterior to the left would require to decrease from positive to negative; the reverse passage would require 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 , there are two simple horizons. Outside the metric is static; between and , and is timelike. Inside , again, so is spacelike and the 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 the two horizons coalesce, 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 , no real zero of 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.

