Timelike conformal fields on closed $3$-manifolds

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that in closed 3-manifolds, timelike conformal vector fields are inherently Reeb vector fields of either Sasakian or co-Kähler structures, revealing a deep geometric rigidity.

Contribution

It proves that all nowhere-vanishing timelike conformal vector fields in 3D are Reeb vector fields of special geometric structures, linking Lorentzian geometry with contact and cosymplectic topology.

Findings

Timelike conformal fields are Reeb vector fields of Sasakian or co-Kähler structures.

Such fields exhibit geometric rigidity in 3D Lorentzian manifolds.

The work connects Lorentzian geometry with contact and cosymplectic topology.

Abstract

This paper investigates timelike conformal vector fields on closed Lorentzian $3$-manifolds and shows that, although these fields form a broader class than Killing fields, their behavior in dimension three is nonetheless remarkably rigid. After performing a conformal change of the metric so that the vector field becomes unit and Killing, we analyze the geometry of the flow it generates through the framework of stable Hamiltonian structures and basic cohomology. Our main result proves that any nowhere-vanishing timelike conformal vector field necessarily arises as the Reeb vector field of either a Sasakian structure or a co-K\"ahler structure. In other words, every such Lorentzian conformal flow is intrinsically "Reeb-like", which forces the underlying geometry to be either contact or cosymplectic. This establishes a striking connection between Lorentzian geometry, Sasakian and co-K\"ahler structures, and the topology of flows in dimension~$3$.