Null Cones in Lorentz-covariant General Relativity *

The oft-neglected issue of the causal structure in the flat spacetime approach to Einstein’s theory of gravity is considered. Consistency This work is based on a portion of the first’s author’s dissertation, supervised by the second author. The Ilya Prigogine Center for Studies in Statistical Mechanics and Complex Systems, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712 USA, and Mathematics Department, Box 780, St. Edward’s University, Austin, TX 78704 USA; email [email protected] or [email protected] J.B.P. thanks I. Goldman for providing results from his unpublished dissertation in Hebrew; M. Choptuik, L. Shepley, M. Visser, S. Deser, A. A. Logunov, S. Weinstein, J. Norton, and J. VanMeter for discussions; C. V. Marcotte for the reference to the work of Weeks; A. N. Petrov for bibliographic information and helpful discussions; and the Center for Relativity at the University of Texas at Austin for use of computer facilities. Support from the Ilya Prigogine Center for Studies in Statistical Mechanics and Complex Systems at the University of Texas at Austin and from the Welch Foundation is very gratefully acknowledged. The Ilya Prigogine Center for Studies in Statistical Mechanics and Complex Systems, The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX 78712 USA