We present an extension of Geodesics in Lorentzian Manifolds (Semi-Riemannian Manifolds or pseudo-Riemannian Manifolds ). A geodesic on a Riemannian manifold is, locally, a length minimizing curve. On the other hand, geodesics in Lorentzian manifolds can be viewed as a distance between ``events''. They are no longer distance minimizing (instead, some are distance maximizing) and our goal is to illustrate over what time parameter geodesics in Lorentzian manifolds are defined. If all geodesics in timelike or spacelike or lightlike are defined for infinite time, then the manifold is called ``geodesically complete'', or simply, ``complete''. It is easy to show that the magnitude of a geodesic is constant, so one can characterize geodesics in terms of their causal character: if this magnitude is negative, the geodesic is called timelike. If this magnitude is positive, then it is spacelike. If this magnitude is 0, then it is called lightlike or null. Geodesic completeness can be considered by only considering one causal character to produce the notions of spacelike complete, timelike complete, and null or lightlike complete. We illustrate that some of the notions are inequivalent.

Fuchsian groups are discrete subgroups of isometries of the hyperbolic plane. This thesis will primarily work with the upper half-plane model, though we will provide an example in the disk model. We will define Fuchsian groups and examine their properties geometrically and algebraically. We will also discuss the relationships between fundamental regions, Dirichlet regions and Ford regions. The goal is to see how a Ford region can be constructed with isometric circles.

Characterizing a manifold up to isometry is a challenging task. A manifold is a topological space. One may equip a manifold with a metric, and generally speaking, this metric determines how the manifold “looks". An example of this would be the unit sphere in R3. While we typically envision the standard metric on this sphere to give it its familiar shape, one could define a different metric on this set of points, distorting distances within this set to make it seem perhaps more ellipsoidal, something not isometric to the standard round sphere. In an effort to distinguish manifolds up to isometry, we wish to compute meaningful invariants. For example, the Riemann curvature tensor and its surrogates are examples of invariants one could construct. Since these objects are generally too complicated to compare and are not real valued, we construct scalar invariants from these objects instead. This thesis will explore these invariants and exhibit a special family of manifolds that are not flat on which all of these invariants vanish. We will go on to properly define, and gives examples of, manifolds, metrics, tangent vector fields, and connections. We will show how to compute the Christoffel symbols that define the Levi-Civita connection, how to compute curvature, and how to raise and lower indices so that we can produce scalar invariants. In order to construct the curvature operator and curvature tensor, we use the miracle of pseudo-Riemannian geometry, i.e., the Levi-Civita connection, the unique torsion free and metric compatible connection on a manifold. Finally, we examine Generalized Plane Wave Manifolds, and show that all scalar invariants of Weyl type on these manifolds vanish, despite the fact that many of these manifolds are not flat.

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One of the methods used for the construction of the classical Alexander horned sphere leads naturally to generalization to horned spheres of higher order. Let M2, denote the Alexander horned sphere. This is a 2-horned sphere of order 2. Denote by M 3 and M4, two 2-horned spheres of orders 3 and 4, respectively, constructed by such a generalization. The fundamental groups of the complements of M2, M3, and M4 are derived, and representations of these groups onto the Alternating Group, A5, are found. The form of the presentations of these fundamental groups leads to a more general class of groups, denoted by Gk, k ≥ 2. A set of homomorphisms ϴkl : Gk, k ≥ l ≥ 2 is found, which has a clear geometric meaning as applied to the groups G2, G3, and G4. Two theorems relating to direct systems of non-abelian groups are proved and applied to the groups Gk. The implication of these theorems is that the groups Gk, k≥2 are all free groups of countably infinite rank and that the embeddings of M2, M3, and M4 in E3 cannot be distinguished by means of fundamental groups. *33 pages)

We begin by recalling the notion of a coarse space as defined by John Roe. We show that metrizability of coarse spaces is a coarse invariant. The concepts of bounded geometry, asymptotic dimension, and Guoliang Yu's Property A are investigated in the setting of coarse spaces. In particular, we show that bounded geometry is a coarse invariant, and we give a proof that finite asymptotic dimension implies Property A in this general setting. The notion of a metric approximation is introduced, and a characterization theorem is proved regarding bounded geometry. Chapter 7 presents a discussion of coarse structures on the minimal uncountable ordinal. We show that it is a nonmetrizable coarse space not of bounded geometry. Moreover, we show that this space has asymptotic dimension 0; hence, it has Property A.Finally, Chapter 8 regards coarse structures on products of coarse spaces. All of the previous concepts above are considered with regard to 3 different coarse structures analogous to the 3 different topologies on products in topology. In particular, we see that an arbitrary product of spaces with any of the 3 coarse structures with asymptotic dimension 0 has asymptotic dimension 0.

Building on the work of Conrad Plaut and Valera Berestovskii regarding uniform spaces and the covering spectrum of Christina Sormani and Guofang Wei developed for geodesic spaces, the author defines and develops discrete homotopy theory for metric spaces, which can be thought of as a discrete analog of classical path-homotopy and covering space theory. Given a metric space, X, this leads to the construction of a collection of covering spaces of X - and corresponding covering groups - parameterized by the positive real numbers, which we call the [epsilon]-covers and the [epsilon]-groups. These covers and groups evolve dynamically as the parameter decreases, changing topological type at specific parameter values which depend on the topology and local geometry of X. This leads to the definition of a critical spectrum for metric spaces, which is the set of all values at which the topological type of the covers change. Several results are proved regarding the critical spectrum and its connections to topology and local geometry, particularly in the context of geodesic spaces, refinable spaces, and Gromov-Hausdorff limits of compact metric spaces. We investigate the relationship between the critical spectrum and covering spectrum in the case when X is geodesic, connections between the geometry of the [epsilon]-groups and the metric and topological structure of the [epsilon]-covers, as well as the behavior of the [epsilon]-covers and critical values under Gromov-Hausdorff convergence.

An analysis of the Einstein Field Equations within a Robertson-Walker Cosmology. More specifically, what values of the cosmological constant will result in a Big Bang.

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From fundamental forms to curvatures and geodesics, differential geometry has many special theorems and applications worth examining. Among these, the Gauss-Bonnet Theorem is one of the well-known theorems in classical differential geometry. It links geometrical and topological properties of a surface. The thesis introduced some basic concepts in differential geometry, explained them with examples, analyzed the Gauss-Bonnet Theorem and presented the proof of the theorem in greater detail. The thesis also considered applications of the Gauss-Bonnet theorem to some special surfaces.