Compact null hypersurfaces in Lorentzian manifolds

Abstract We show how the topological and geometric properties of the family of null hypersurfaces in a Lorentzian manifold are related with the properties of the ambient manifold itself. In particular, we focus in how the presence of global symmetries and curvature conditions restrict the existence of compact null hypersurfaces. We use these results to show the influence on the existence of compact totally umbilic null hypersurfaceswhich are not totally geodesic. Finally we describe the restrictions that they impose in causality theory.