Causal Structure and Spacetime Singularities

Abstract

In General Relativity the metric can be recovered from the structure of the lightcones and a measure giving the volume element. Since the causal structure seems to be simpler than the Lorentzian manifold structure, this suggests that it is more fundamental. But there are cases when seemingly healthy causal structure and measure determine a singular metric. Here it is shown that this is not a bug, but a feature, because big-bang and black hole singularities are instances of this situation. But while the metric is special at singularities, being singular, the causal structure and the measure are not special in an explicit way at singularities. Therefore, considering the causal structure more fundamental than the metric provides a more natural framework to deal with spacetime singularities.