Manifold-Topology from K-Causal Order

Abstract

To a significant extent, the metrical and topological properties of spacetime can be described purely order-theoretically. The $K^+$ relation has proven to be useful for this purpose, and one could wonder whether it could serve as the primary causal order from which everything else would follow. In that direction, we prove, by defining a suitable order-theoretic boundary of $K^+(p)$, that in a $K$-causal spacetime, the manifold-topology can be recovered from $K^+$. We also state a conjecture on how the chronological relation $I^+$ could be defined directly in terms of $K^+$.