TOY MODEL FOR GRAVITATIONAL KINKS

The homotopy properties of gravity in 1 + 1 dimensions are shown to imply the existence of structures analogous to the Finkelstein-Misner kinks of general relativity. A formalism is developed for the construction of kink metrics and a number of simple kink solutions for the (1 + 1)-dimensional equations are presented-including an n-kink solution that is locally transformable to the usual de Sitter solution and a one-kink solution that is locally transformable to one of the standard FLRW solutions. The relationship between the kink count and the hypersurface decomposition of the space-time manifold is explained in detail.