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 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 , its area is and its null expansions are
Both are negative for . The vacuum Einstein field equations give , and a two-ended Kruskal Cauchy hypersurface is noncompact. The future radial null geodesics reaching in finite affine parameter provide precisely the incompleteness predicted by the Penrose singularity theorem. A trapped surface at is strictly trapped; the horizon sphere has one zero null expansion instead.
Radial null geodesic 2026-10-06
A radial null geodesic in a spherically symmetric spacetime has zero angular momentum and fixed angular coordinates. Its projection is a null curve of the two-dimensional radial Lorentzian metric.