Lorentz Geometry and Contact Topology in Spacetime

Explore the intersection of Lorentz geometry and contact topology in this 49-minute seminar talk by Stefan Nemirovski, part of the MUNI Seminar Series. Delve into Roger Penrose's observation about the natural contact structure in the space of light rays of spacetime and the subsequent problem of describing causality relations. Discover how the global rigidity properties of contact manifolds, uncovered by Daniel Bennequin and Yakov Eliashberg, led to a solution of Penrose's problem and opened new avenues for research. Learn about strong cosmic censorship, global hyperbolicity, spacetime events, and Levandrian spheres. Examine causal relations, contact rigidity, contact forms, and interval topology as you gain insights from Nemirovski, a renowned Russian mathematician and principal researcher at the Steklov Mathematical Institute in Moscow.