The existence of light‐like homogeneous geodesics in homogeneous Lorentzian manifolds

Abstract

In previous papers, a fundamental affine method for studying homogeneous geodesics was developed. Using this method and elementary differential topology it was proved that any homogeneous affine manifold and in particular any homogeneous pseudo‐Riemannian manifold admits a homogeneous geodesic through arbitrary point. In the present paper this affine method is refined and adapted to the pseudo‐Riemannian case. Using this method and elementary topology it is proved that any homogeneous Lorentzian manifold of even dimension admits a light‐like homogeneous geodesic. The method is illustrated in detail with an example of the Lie group of dimension 3 with an invariant metric, which does not admit any light‐like homogeneous geodesic.