Intuitively, a Cauchy surface is a plane in space-time which is like an instant of time; its significance is that giving the initial conditions on this plane determines the future (and the past) uniquely.
More precisely, a Cauchy surface is any subset of space-time which is intersected by every non-spacelike, inextensible curve, i.e. any causal curve, exactly once.
A partial Cauchy surface is a hypersurface which is intersected by any causal curve at most once.
The name is for Augustin Louis Cauchy.
Read more about Cauchy Surface: Discussion, Cauchy Horizon
Famous quotes containing the word surface:
“Just under the surface I shall be, all together at first, then separate and drift, through all the earth and perhaps in the end through a cliff into the sea, something of me.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)