We consider a triality between the Zermelo navigation problem, the geodesic flow on a Finslerian geometry of Randers type, and spacetimes in one dimension higher admitting a timelike conformal Killing vector field. From the latter viewpoint, the data of the Zermelo problem are encoded in a (conformally) Painlevé-Gullstrand form of the spacetime metric, whereas the data of the Randers problem are encoded in a stationary generalization of the usual optical metric. We discuss how the spacetime viewpoint gives a simple and physical perspective on various issues, including how Finsler geometries with constant flag curvature always map to conformally flat spacetimes and that the Finsler condition maps to either a causality condition or it breaks down at an ergo surface in the spacetime picture. The gauge equivalence in this network of relations is considered as well as the connection to analogue models and the viewpoint of magnetic flows. We provide a variety of examples.

We explore a classical instability of spacetimes of dimension $D>\mathrm{}4.\mathrm{}$ First, we consider static solutions: generalized black holes and brane world metrics. The dangerous mode is a tensor mode on an Einstein base manifold of dimension $D-2.$ A criterion for instability is found for the generalized Schwarzschild, AdS-Schwarzschild and topological black hole spacetimes in terms of the Lichnerowicz spectrum on the base manifold. Secondly, we consider perturbations in time-dependent solutions: Generalized dS and AdS. Thirdly we show that, subject to the usual limitations of a linear analysis, any Ricci flat spacetime may be stabilized by embedding into a higher dimensional spacetime with cosmological constant. We apply our results to pure AdS black strings. Finally, we study the stability of higher dimensional “bubbles of nothing.”

The “gravitational memory effect” due to an exact plane wave provides us with an elementary description of the diffeomorphisms associated with the analogue of “soft gravitons for this nonasymptotically flat system. We explain how the presence of the latter may be detected by observing the motion of freely falling particles or other forms of gravitational wave detection. Numerical calculations confirm the relevance of the first, second and third time integrals of the Riemann tensor pointed out earlier. Solutions for various profiles are constructed. It is also shown how to extend our treatment to Einstein-Maxwell plane waves and a midisuperspace quantization is given.

A cosmological extension of the Eisenhart–Duval metric is constructed by incorporating a cosmic scale factor and the energy-momentum tensor into the scheme. The dynamics of the spacetime is governed...