Start with the four-dimensional Minkowski metric , where . Choose an arbitrary length , and use the retarded and advanced null coordinates , . For the Minkowski conformal compactification, set
Both lie between and . Since , we have ; the remaining inequalities are . Moreover,
Multiply by the square of the conformal factor . 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 degrees.
The line is the ordinary timelike centre . The upper sloping edge is future null infinity, reached with and finite ; the lower sloping edge is past null infinity, reached with and finite . The vertices and are future and past timelike infinity, denoted and . The vertex is spacelike infinity, . 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 , . 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.
Figure 1.
Kruskal extension and the radial Minkowski Penrose diagram
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Spacelike infinity 2026-10-06
Spacelike infinity is the ideal endpoint of spatial directions in the Minkowski conformal compactification, represented by . Unlike null infinity, it is a vertex of the radial Penrose diagram.