Bartnik Splitting Conjecture for globally hyperbolic spacetimes

Let MM be a globally hyperbolic spacetime with compact Cauchy surfaces satisfying the strong energy condition. Bartnik Splitting Conjecture. If MM is timelike geodesically complete, then MM splits: (M,g)(M,g) is isometric to

(R×S,dt2+h),({\mathbb R} \times S,-dt^2+h),

where SS is a smooth spacelike Cauchy hypersurface with induced metric hh. The conjecture concerns rigidity in the Lorentzian analogue of the Cheeger–Gromoll splitting theorem and would imply that timelike geodesic completeness prevents singular behavior in this setting. Nevertheless, the conjecture remains open.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Gregory J. Galloway, “A note on the Lorentzian splitting theorem”, arXiv:2504.05028 (2025).

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