Light cone

Light cone in 2D space plus a time dimension.

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A Light cone is the path that a flash of light, emanating from a single event E (localized to a single point in space and a single moment in time) and traveling in all directions, would take through spacetime. If we imagine the light confined to a two-dimensional plane, the light from the flash spreads out in a circle after the event E occurs, and if we graph the growing circle with the vertical axis of the graph representing time, the result is a cone, known as the future light cone (some animated diagrams depicting this concept can be see here). The past light cone behaves like the future light cone in reverse, a circle which contracts in radius at the speed of light until it converges to a point at the exact position and time of the event E. In reality, there are three space dimensions, so the light would actually form an expanding or contracting sphere in 3D space rather than a circle in 2D, and the light cone would actually be a four-dimensional shape, but of the concept is easier to visualize with the number of spatial dimensions reduced from three to two.

Because it is thought that signals and other causal influences cannot travel faster than light in relativity, the light cone plays an essential role in defining the concept of causality. For a given event E, the set of events that lie on or inside the past light cone of E would also be the set of all events that could send a signal that would have time to reach E and influence it in some way. For example, at a time ten years before E, if we consider the set of all events in the past light cone of E which occur at that time, the result would be a sphere with a radius of ten light-years centered on the future position E will occur. So, any point on or inside the sphere could send a signal moving at the speed of light or slower that would have time to influence the event E, while points outside the sphere at that moment would not be able to have any causal influence on E. Likewise, the set of events that lie on or inside the future light cone of E would also be the set of events that could receive a signal sent out from the position and time of E. Events which lie neither in the past or future light cone of E cannot influence or be influenced by E in relativity.

Mathematical Construction

In special relativity, a light cone (or null cone) is the surface describing the temporal evolution of a flash of light in Minkowski spacetime. This can be visualized in 3-space if the two horizontal axes are chosen to be spatial dimensions, while the vertical axis is time.

The light cone is constructed as follows. Taking as event p a flash of light (light pulse) at time t₀, all events that can be reached by this pulse from p form the future light cone of p, while those events that can send a light pulse to p form the past light cone of p.

Given an event E, the light cone classifies all events in spacetime into 5 distinct categories:

• Events on the future light cone of E.

• Events on the past light cone of E.

• Events inside the future light cone of E are those which are affected by a material particle emitted at E.

• Events inside the past light cone of E are those which can emit a material particle and affect what is happening at E.

• All other events are in the (absolute) elsewhere of E and are those that can not affect and can not be affected by E.

The above classifications hold true in any frame of reference; that is, an event judged to be in the light cone by one observer, will also be judged to be in the same light cone by all other observers, no matter their frame of reference. This is why the concept is so powerful.

Keep in mind, we're talking about an event, a specific location at a specific time. To say that one event cannot affect another, that means that there isn't enough time for light to get from one to the other. Light from each event will eventually (after some time) make it to the old location of the other event, but since that's at a later time, it's not the same event.

As time progresses forward, each event's future light cone will eventually grow to encompass more and more locations. Likewise, if we imagine running time backwards from a given event, the event's past light cone would likewise encompass more and more locations at earlier and earlier times. The further locations will of course be at far distant times. The past light cone of an event on present-day Earth, at its very edges, includes very distant objects (every object in the observable universe), but only what they looked like long ago, when the universe was young.

Two events at different locations, at the same time (according to a specific frame of reference), are always outside of each other's past and future light cones; light cannot travel instantaneously. Other observers, of course, might see the events happening at different times and at different locations, but one way or another, the two events will likewise be seen to be outside of each other's cones.

If using a system of units where the speed of light in vacuum is defined as exactly 1, for example if space is measured in light-seconds and time is measured in seconds, then the cone will have a slope of 45°, because light travels a distance of one light-second in vacuum during one second. Since special relativity requires the speed of light to be equal in every inertial frame, all observers must arrive at the same angle of 45° for their light cones. This is ensured by the Lorentz transformation. Elsewhere, an integral part of light cones, is the region of spacetime outside the light cone at a given event (a point in spacetime). Events that are elsewhere from each other are mutually unobservable, and cannot be causally connected.

(The 45° figure really only has meaning in space-space, as we try to understand space-time by making space-space drawings. Space-space tilt is measured by angles, and calculated with trig functions. Space-time tilt is measured by rapidity, and calculated with hyperbolic functions.)

Light-cones in general relativity

In general relativity, the future light cone is the boundary of the causal future of a point and the past light cone is the boundary of its causal past.

In a curved spacetime, the light-cones cannot all be tilted so that they are 'parallel'; this reflects the fact that the spacetime is curved and is essentially different from Minkowski space. In vacuum regions (those points of spacetime free of matter), this inability to tilt all the light-cones so that they are all parallel is reflected in the non-vanishing of the Weyl tensor.

See also

• Absolute future
• Absolute past
• Hyperbolic partial differential equation
• Light cone coordinates
• Method of characteristics
• Minkowski diagram
• Monge cone
• Wave equation

External links

• The Einstein-Minkowski Spacetime: Introducing the Light Cone
• The Paradox of Special Relativity
• RSS feed of stars in one's personal light cone