Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-fvjsw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-12T05:19:14.064Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - Causal Structures

from Part II - General Relativity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2026

Piljin Yi
Affiliation:
Korea Institute for Advanced Study
Get access

Summary

We finally come to the question of why the black hole horizon is said to allow only one-way traffic. When viewed from the Kruskal coordinates, suitable for freely falling observers, the horizon consists of several distinct causal components. The future event horizon is the one we usually refer to when describing the one-way nature of the black hole geometry; its “past” cousin allows the opposite flow of trajectories but is often an artifact of the “eternal” geometry. We derive and display Penrose diagrams for many of the solutions accumulated so far and offer cautionary tales on causal structures and singularities.

Information

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Causal Structures
  • Piljin Yi, Korea Institute for Advanced Study
  • Book: Gravitation for Theorists
  • Online publication: 01 March 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009575638.014
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Causal Structures
  • Piljin Yi, Korea Institute for Advanced Study
  • Book: Gravitation for Theorists
  • Online publication: 01 March 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009575638.014
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Causal Structures
  • Piljin Yi, Korea Institute for Advanced Study
  • Book: Gravitation for Theorists
  • Online publication: 01 March 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009575638.014
Available formats
×