Pseudo-timelike loops in signature changing semi-Riemannian manifolds with a transverse radical

Abstract

In 1983, Hartle and Hawking proposed the no-boundary proposal, suggesting that the universe has no beginning in the sense of a spacetime singularity or boundary. Nevertheless, there is an origin of time. Mathematically, this involves signature-type changing manifolds in which a Riemannian region smoothly transitions to a Lorentzian region across the hypersurface $H$ where time begins.

We develop a coherent framework for signature changing manifolds with a degenerate yet smooth metric. Established Lorentzian tools and results are then adapted to this setting, and new definitions are introduced that carry unforeseen causal implications. A noteworthy consequence is the presence of locally time-reversing loops through every point on the hypersurface. Imposing global hyperbolicity on the Lorentzian region, we prove that for every point $p\in M$ there exists a pseudo-timelike loop self-intersecting at $p$. Equivalently, $M$ always admits a closed pseudo-timelike path around which the time direction reverses, preventing any consistent distinction between future- and past-directed vectors. To an observer near $H$, such loops may appear as the creation of a particle–antiparticle pair at two distinct points.