On effects of the null energy condition on totally umbilic hypersurfaces in a class of static spacetimes

Abstract We study the effects of the null energy condition on totally umbilic hypersurfaces in a class of static spacetimes, both in the spacelike and the timelike case, respectively. In the spacelike case, we study totally umbilic warped product graphs and give a full characterization of embedded surfaces with constant spacetime mean curvature using an Alexandrov Theorem by Brendle and Borghini–Fogagnolo–Pinamonti. In the timelike case, we achieve a characterization of photon surfaces with constant umbilicity factor similar to a result by Cederbaum–Galloway.