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Future null infinity is the boundary reached by future-directed outgoing null geodesics in an asymptotically flat spacetime. In four dimensions it has topology $\mathbb{R}\times S^2$ under the standard asymptotic-flatness assumptions.

It is the future component of null infinity; the past component is ${\mathcal{I}}^{-}$.

Null infinity is the ideal boundary reached by asymptotically escaping null geodesics in a suitable conformal completion. It has future and past components. A finite location on a Penrose diagram need not represent a finite affine parameter.

Take $M>0$ and write $f=1-2M/r$. Integrating $d{r}_{\ast }/dr=f^{-1}$ gives the Schwarzschild tortoise coordinateThe advanced and retarded Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates are respectively $v=t+r_{\ast }$ and $u=t-r_{\ast }$. Substituting $dt=dv-dr/f$ or $dt=du+dr/f$ givesBoth radial-time blocks have determinant $-1$ and smooth coefficients at $r=2M$. Consequently the Schwarzschild event horizon is a coordinate singularity of the original chart, not a degeneracy of the geometry. The Kretschmann scalar $48M^2/r^6$ is finite there, while it diverges at $r=0$. Angular coordinate degeneracies at the polar axes are removed separately by ordinary sphere charts.

The ingoing Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates extend the right exterior through its future black hole horizon. Radial null geodesics obey either $dv=0$ or $dr/dv=f/2$. Inside $r=2M$, the latter also moves towards smaller $r$ as $v$ increases, and the future-directed ingoing family has decreasing $r$. Thus neither family can escape to the exterior. The future horizon is the boundary separating points that can send signals to future null infinity from those that cannot. The retarded chart extends through the past horizon instead. Reversing the time orientation gives the white hole: future-directed signals can leave it, but exterior signals cannot enter it. These are distinct branches in the eternal extension; the white-hole branch need not occur in a spacetime formed by collapse.

For a simultaneous extension through both branches, start in the right exterior and define the Kruskal–Szekeres coordinatesTheir product and the extended metric areIndeed $du=-4MdU/U$ and $dv=4MdV/V$ transform $-fdudv$ into the displayed expression. The function of $r$ on the right of the product relation has derivative $-r{e}^{r/(2M)}/(4M^2)$, nonzero at $r=2M$, so $r$ is a smooth function of $UV$ across zero. The coefficient of $dUdV$ there is $-16M^2/e$, finite and nonzero. Allowing either sign of $U,V$ therefore gives the regular maximal extension with $UV<1$ and $r>0$.

With $T_K=(V+U)/2$ and $X_K=(V-U)/2$, the radial metric is a positive multiple of $-d{T}_K^2+d{X}_K^2$. The two exterior regions have $(U,V)=(-,+)$ and $(+,-)$. The future interior, or black hole region, has $(+,+)$; the past interior, or white hole region, has $(-,-)$. The Killing horizons are $U=0$ and $V=0$, meeting on the bifurcation surface at $U=V=0$.

For the Penrose diagram, compactify the null variables before forming time and space:This Schwarzschild conformal compactification preserves radial null directions because $dUdV={\sec }^2\bar{U}{\sec }^2\bar{V}(d{T}^2-d{X}^2)$. The ranges $|\bar{U}|,|\bar{V}|<\pi /2$ bound the diagram, and $UV<1$ cuts off its future and past tips. On $UV=1$ with $U,V>0$, $\bar{U}+\bar{V}=\pi /2$, so the future curvature singularity is $T=\pi /4$. The past curvature singularity is similarly $T=-\pi /4$. Both have $|X|<\pi /4$ and are spacelike. The horizon lines remain $T=\pm X$.

Each point of this radial Penrose diagram represents a two-sphere, except at limiting boundaries. Each exterior has its own future and past null infinity, ${\mathcal{I}}^{+}$ and ${\mathcal{I}}^{-}$. For example in the right exterior, $V\to \infty$ at fixed $U<0$ gives ${\mathcal{I}}^{+}$, whereas $U\to -\infty$ at fixed $V>0$ gives ${\mathcal{I}}^{-}$. Its spacelike infinity is $(T,X)=(0,\pi /2)$; its future and past timelike infinity are the vertices $(\pi /4,\pi /4)$ and $(-\pi /4,\pi /4)$. The left exterior has the reflected counterparts. These conformal boundary points are ideal endpoints, not finite-distance spacetime events; the physical affine or proper parameters of escaping geodesics diverge.

The horizons are regular null surfaces, while the horizontal $r=0$ boundaries are genuine curvature singularities. The central point represents the regular bifurcation surface, not a singularity. Future-directed radial causal curves have nondecreasing $U,V$, so a curve cannot go from one exterior to the other: changing the requisite signs would require one null variable to decrease. Crossing a future horizon instead leads towards the future singularity. The maximal extension has two causally disconnected exteriors, a future black-hole region and a past white-hole region.

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.

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.

For the Kruskal–Szekeres coordinates of a positive-mass Schwarzschild spacetime, $UV=(1-r/(2M))e^{r/(2M)}$. The displayed conformal compactification makes radial null geodesics lines of slope $\pm 1$. The Killing horizons are $T=\pm X$, and the spacelike curvature singularities $r=0$ lie at $T=\pm \pi /4$, with $|X|<\pi /4$. Two asymptotically flat exterior regions each have past null infinity, null infinity to the future, timelike infinity and spacelike infinity. The two exterior regions cannot communicate by any causal curve; future-directed curves that cross a future horizon instead end at the black-hole singularity.

Spacelike infinity is the ideal endpoint of spatial directions in the Minkowski conformal compactification, represented by $(T,R)=(0,\pi )$. Unlike null infinity, it is a vertex of the radial Penrose diagram.