hide
Free keywords:
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology, gr-qc
Abstract:
It is known that all spatially homogeneous solutions of the vacuum Einstein
equations in four dimensions which exist for an infinite proper time towards
the future are future geodesically complete. This paper investigates whether
the analogous statement holds in higher dimensions. A positive answer to this
question is obtained for a large class of models which can be studied with the
help of Kaluza-Klein reduction to solutions of the Einstein-scalar field
equations in four dimensions. The proof of this result makes use of a criterion
for geodesic completeness which is applicable to more general spatially
homogeneous models.