The Volume of the Past Light-Cone and the Paneitz Operator
arXiv:0910.4756 · doi:10.1007/s10714-010-1014-4
Abstract
We study a conjecture involving the invariant volume of the past light-cone from an arbitrary observation point back to a fixed initial value surface. The conjecture is that a 4th order differential operator which occurs in the theory of conformal anomalies gives when acted upon the invariant volume of the past light-cone. We show that an extended version of the conjecture is valid for an arbitrary homogeneous and isotropic geometry. First order perturbation theory about flat spacetime reveals a violation of the conjecture which, however, vanishes for any vacuum solution of the Einstein equation. These results may be significant for constructing quantum gravitational observables, for quantifying the back-reaction on spacetime expansion and for alternate gravity models which feature a timelike vector field.
22 pages, no figures, 5 tables. Version 2 substantially extended to cover nonzero spatial curvature, and with simplified derivations
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