Lorentz meets Ptolemy

Abstract

We consider a Lorentzian analogue of the Ptolemy inequality and we prove that in the setting of globally hyperbolic spacetimes it is equivalent to a global timelike sectional curvature bound from above by zero. We investigate the link between the Ptolemy inequality and the hyperbolic inversion and establish some applications and rigidity properties.

arXiv comment20 pages, 3 Figures