Physics in precision-dependent normal neighborhoods

TL;DR

This paper develops a method to determine the size and shape of normal neighborhoods in spacetimes, analyzing their dependence on measurement precision and applying it to Schwarzschild geometry near black hole horizons.

Contribution

It introduces a procedure for assessing normal neighborhoods in any spacetime, including a new variant of Fermi normal coordinates, and explores their properties near black hole horizons.

Findings

Normal neighborhoods can extend across event horizons without singularities.

Normal neighborhoods' size depends on observer measurement precision.

A new variant of Fermi normal coordinates unifies Riemann and Fermi normal coordinates.

Abstract

We introduce a procedure to determine the size and shape of normal neighborhoods in any spacetimes and their dependence on the precision of the measurements performed by arbitrary observers. As an example, we consider the Schwarzschild geometry in Riemann and Fermi normal coordinates and determine the size and shape of normal neighborhoods in the vicinity of the event horizon. Depending on the observers, normal neighborhoods extend to the event horizon and even beyond into the black hole interior. It is shown that the causal structure supported by normal neighborhoods across an event horizon is consistent with general relativity. In particular, normal neighborhoods reaching over an event horizon are void of the Schwarzschild coordinate singularity. In addition, we introduce a new variant of normal coordinates which we call Fermi normal coordinates around a point, unifying features of Riemann and Fermi normal coordinates, and analyze their neighborhoods.