On Lorentzian causality with continuous metrics

Abstract

Abstract. We present a systematic study of causality theory on Lorentzian manifolds with continuous metrics. Examples are given which show that some standard facts in smooth Lorentzian geometry, such as light-cones being hypersurfaces, are wrong when metrics which are merely continuous are considered. We show that existence of time functions remains true on domains of dependence with continuous metrics, and that C0,1 differentiability of the metric suffices for many key results of the smooth causality theory.