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    Conceptual introduction to signature change through a natural extension of Kaluza-Klein theory

    Vincent Moncrief1,* and Nathalie E. Rieger2,†

    • 1Departments of Mathematics and Physics, Yale University, 219 Prospect St, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA
    • 2Department of Mathematics, Yale University, 219 Prospect St, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA

    • *Contact author: vincent.moncrief@yale.edu
    • †Contact author: n.rieger@yale.edu

    Phys. Rev. D 112, 124081 – Published 26 December, 2025

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/tlqr-v678

    Abstract

    We propose an extension of basic Kaluza-Klein theory in which the higher-dimensional Lorentzian manifold develops a Cauchy horizon rather than remaining globally hyperbolic as in the conventional framework. In this setting, the U(1)-generating Killing field, assumed to exist in Kaluza-Klein theory, undergoes a transition in its causal character, from spacelike in the globally hyperbolic region to timelike in an acausal extension through a horizon. This yields a (lower-dimensional) quotient manifold whose metric changes signature from Lorentzian to Riemannian. In this way, one observes a singular, signature changing transition emerging rather naturally from the projection of a globally smooth, even analytic, Lorentzian geometry “up in the bundle.” This reveals a “signature change without signature change” scenario—a phrasing inspired by John Wheeler—and extends the usual Kaluza-Klein framework in a conceptually natural direction.

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