On Two Topologies that were suggested by Zeeman

Abstract

The class of Zeeman topologies on spacetimes in the frame of relativity theory is considered to be of powerful intuitive justification, satisfying a sequence of properties with physical meaning, such as the group of homeomorphisms under such a topology is isomorphic to the Lorentz group and dilatations, in Minkowski spacetime, and to the group of homothetic symmetries in any curved spacetime. In this article we focus on two distinct topologies that were suggested by Zeeman as alternatives to his Fine topology, showing their connection with two orders: a timelike and a (non-causal) spacelike one. For the (non-causal) spacelike order, we introduce a partition of the null cone which gives the desired topology invariantly from the choice of the hyperplane of partition. In particular, we observe that these two orders induce topologies within the class of Zeeman topologies, while the two suggested topologies by Zeeman himself are intersection topologies of these two order topologies (respectively) with the manifold topology. We end up with a list of open questions and a discussion, comparing the topologies with bounded against those with unbounded open sets and their possible physical interpretation.