
The notion of being totally umbilic is considered for non-degenerate and degenerate submanifolds of semi-Riemanian manifolds. After some remarks on the general case, timelike and lightlike totally umbilic submanifolds of Lorentzian manifolds are discussed, along with their physical interpretation in view of general relativity. In particular, the mathematical notion of totally umbilic submanifolds is linked to the notions of photon surfaces and of null strings which have been used in the physics literature.
7 pages; written version of talk given at World Congress on Nonlinear Analysis 2004, Orlando, Florida
Global differential geometry of Lorentz manifolds, manifolds with indefinite metrics, Local submanifolds, Local differential geometry of Lorentz metrics, indefinite metrics, FOS: Physical sciences, General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc), General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Global differential geometry of Lorentz manifolds, manifolds with indefinite metrics, Local submanifolds, Local differential geometry of Lorentz metrics, indefinite metrics, FOS: Physical sciences, General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc), General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
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