A Conceptual Introduction To Signature Change Through a Natural Extension of Kaluza-Klein Theory

Abstract

We propose an extension of basic Kaluza-Klein theory in which the higher-dimensional Lorentzian manifold develops a Cauchy horizon rather than remaining globally hyperbolic as in the conventional framework. In this setting, the $U(1)$-generating Killing field, assumed to exist in Kaluza-Klein theory, undergoes a transition in its causal character, from spacelike in the globally hyperbolic region to timelike in an acausal extension through a horizon. This yields a (lower-dimensional) quotient manifold whose metric changes signature from Lorentzian to Riemannian. In this way, one observes a singular, signature changing transition emerging rather naturally from the projection of a globally smooth, even analytic, Lorentzian geometry ``up in the bundle''. This reveals a ``signature change without signature change'' scenario -- a phrasing inspired by John Wheeler -- and extends the usual Kaluza-Klein framework in a conceptually natural direction.