On the bundle of null cones

Abstract

We examine the bundle structure of the field of nowhere vanishing null vector fields on a (time-oriented) Lorentzian manifold. Sections of what we refer to as the null tangent, are by definition nowhere vanishing null vector fields. It is shown that the set of nowhere vanishing null vector fields comes equipped with a para-associative ternary partial product. Moreover, the null tangent bundle is an example of a non-polynomial graded bundle.