arXiv research

This article considers the quasi-local energy in reference to a general static spacetime. We follow the approach developed by the authors in [19, 20, 7, 9] and define the quasi-local energy as a difference of surface Hamiltonians, which are derived from the Einstein-Hilbert action. The new quasi-local energy provides a…

Paper proves stability of positive mass theorem for specific types of manifolds.

The positive mass theorem is one of the fundamental results in general relativity. It states that, assuming the dominant energy condition, the total mass of an asymptotically flat spacetime is non-negative. The Penrose inequality provides a lower bound on mass by the area of the black hole and is closely related to the…

Inspired by the work of Chen-Zhang \cite{Chen-Zhang}, we derive an evolution formula for the Wang-Yau quasi-local energy in reference to a static space, introduced by Chen-Wang-Wang-Yau \cite{CWWY}. If the reference static space represents a mass minimizing, static extension of the initial surface $Σ$, we observe that …

Motivated by problems related to quasi-local mass in general relativity, we study the static metric extension conjecture proposed by R. Bartnik \cite{Bartnik_energy}. We show that, for any metric on $\bar{B}_1$ that is close enough to the Euclidean metric and has reflection invariant boundary data, there always exists …

Paper analyzes Bartnik's quasi-local mass conjectures and their validity.

In [13], a new quasi-local energy is introduced for spacetimes with a non-zero cosmological constant. In this article, we study the small sphere limit of this newly defined quasi-local energy for spacetimes with a negative cosmological constant. For such spacetimes, the anti de-Sitter space is used as the reference for…

We modify previous quasi-local mass definition. The new definition provides expressions of the quasi-local energy, the quasi-local linear momentum and the quasi-local mass. And they are equal to the ADM expressions at spatial infinity. Moreover, the new quasi-local energy has the positivity property.

In this article, we study the small sphere limit of the Wang-Yau quasi-local energy defined in [18,19]. Given a point $p$ in a spacetime $N$, we consider a canonical family of surfaces approaching $p$ along its future null cone and evaluate the limit of the Wang-Yau quasi-local energy. The evaluation relies on solving …

In this paper, we show that the Chen-Nester-Tung (CNT) quasi-local energy is closely related to the Wang-Yau (WY) quasi-local mass. As a particular example, we compute the second variation of the CNT quasi-local energy for axially symmetric Kerr-like spacetimes with axially symmetric embeddings at the obvious critical …

In relativity, the energy of a moving particle depends on the observer, and the rest mass is the minimal energy seen among all observers. The Wang-Yau quasi-local mass for a surface in spacetime introduced in [7] and [8] is defined by minimizing quasi-local energy associated with admissible isometric embeddings of the …

We provide a direct proof for the positivity of Chen-Nester-Tung quasi-local energy with analytic reference in spherical symmetry. A hoop-type theorem for this energy is also established. Finally, the relation between Chen-Nester-Tung and Brown-York quasi-local energies will be discussed.

We analyse the issue of uniqueness of solutions of the static vacuum Einstein equations with prescribed geometric or Bartnik boundary data. Large classes of examples are constructed where uniqueness fails. We then discuss the implications of this behavior for the Bartnik quasi-local mass. A variational characterization…

Proposes a new quasi-local mass for timelike 2-surfaces in spacetimes.

Study examines Wang-Yau quasi-local energy in strong fields near apparent horizons.

This article considers the quasi-local conserved quantities with respect to a reference spacetime with a cosmological constant. We follow the approach developed by the authors in [25,26,7] and define the quasi-local energy as differences of surface Hamiltonians. The ground state for the gravitational energy is taken to…

New energy measure for isolated systems in general relativity.

We prove the following stronger verson of the positivity of quasi-local mass stated in gr-qc/0303019: the quasi-local energy (mass) of each connected component of the boundary of a compact spacelike hypersurface which satisfies the local energy condition is strictly positive unless the spacetime is flat along the space…

Marginally outer trapped surfaces are widely considered as the best quasi-local replacements for event horizons of black holes in General Relativity. However, this equivalence is far from being proved, even in stationary and static situations. In this paper we study an important aspect of this equivalence, namely wheth…

Defines a new quasi-local mass related to spacetime harmonic functions.

In this paper, we prove the following theorem regarding the Wang-Yau quasi-local energy of a spacelike two-surface in a spacetime: Let $Σ$ be a boundary component of some compact, time-symmetric, spacelike hypersurface $Ω$ in a time-oriented spacetime $N$ satisfying the dominant energy condition. Suppose the induced me…

The article calculates the near horizon limit of Wang--Yau quasi-local mass.

The paper explores stable surfaces in Einstein-Maxwell theory, proving mass bounds and nonexistence results.

We analyse the definition of quasi-local energy in GR based on a Hamiltonian analysis of the Einstein-Hilbert action initiated by Brown-York. The role of the constraint equations, in particular the Hamiltonian constraint on the timelike boundary, neglected in previous studies, is emphasized here. We argue that a consis…

In this article, we estimate the quasi-local energy with reference to the Minkowski spacetime [16,17], the anti-de Sitter spacetime [4], or the Schwarzschild spacetime [3]. In each case, the reference spacetime admits a conformal Killing-Yano 2-form which facilitates the application of the Minkowski formula in [15] to …

In this note, we compute the limit of the Wang-Yau quasi-local mass on unit spheres at spatial infinity of an asymptotically flat initial data set. Similar to the small sphere limit of the Wang-Yau quasi-local mass, we prove that the leading order term of the quasi-local mass recovers the stress-energy tensor. For a va…

We show that if an asymptotically flat manifold with horizon boundary admits a global static potential, then the static potential must be zero on the boundary. We also show that if an asymptotically flat manifold with horizon boundary admits an unbounded static potential in the exterior region, then the manifold must c…

We discuss our recent work [4] in which gravitational radiation was studied by evaluating the Wang-Yau quasi-local mass of surfaces of fixed size at the infinity of both axial and polar perturbations of the Schwarzschild spacetime, à la Chandrasekhar [1].

Positive mass theorem for tori with scalar curvature bounds.

We develop a framework for understanding the existence of asymptotically flat solutions to the static vacuum Einstein equations with prescribed boundary data consisting of the induced metric and mean curvature on a 2-sphere. A partial existence result is obtained, giving a partial resolution of a conjecture of Bartnik …

Study proves positivity of quasi-local masses in general relativity using spinors.

Reviewed and extended Wang-Yau quasi-local mass definitions.

Consider a triple of "Bartnik data" $(Σ, γ,H)$, where $Σ$ is a topological 2-sphere with Riemannian metric $γ$ and positive function $H$. We view Bartnik data as a boundary condition for the problem of finding a compact Riemannian 3-manifold $(Ω,g)$ of nonnegative scalar curvature whose boundary is isometric to $(Σ,γ)$…

New energy definition for expanding de Sitter spacetime with umbilic boundaries.

In this paper lower bounds are obtained for quasi-local masses in terms of charge, angular momentum, and horizon area. In particular we treat three quasi-local masses based on a Hamiltonian approach, namely the Brown-York, Liu-Yau, and Wang-Yau masses. The geometric inequalities are motivated by analogous results for t…

Study of quasilocal mass using isometric embedding in various spacetimes.

The Hawking energy is nonnegative and rigid on area-constrained surfaces in general relativity.

For a spacelike 2-surface in spacetime, we propose a new definition of quasi-local angular momentum and quasi-local center of mass, as an element in the dual space of the Lie algebra of the Lorentz group. Together with previous defined quasi-local energy-momentum, this completes the definition of conserved quantities i…

We show that the limit at infinity of the vector-valued Brown-York-type quasi-local mass along any coordinate exhaustion of an asymptotically hyperbolic $3$-manifold satisfying the relevant energy condition on the scalar curvature has the conjectured causal character. Our proof uses spinors and relies on a Witten-type …

In \cite{ly, ly2}, Liu and the second author propose a definition of the quasi-local mass and prove its positivity. This is demonstrated through an inequality which in turn can be interpreted as a total mean curvature comparison theorem for isometric embeddings of a surface of positive Gaussian curvature. The Riemannia…

Constructs foliations of critical surfaces for Hawking energy in asymptotically flat initial data sets.

In this article, we consider the limit of quasi-local conserved quantities [31,9] at the infinity of an asymptotically hyperbolic initial data set in general relativity. These give notions of total energy-momentum, angular momentum, and center of mass. Our assumption on the asymptotics is less stringent than any previo…

We study a functional on the boundary of a compact Riemannian 3-manifold of nonnegative scalar curvature. The functional arises as the second variation of the Wang-Yau quasi-local energy in general relativity. We prove that the functional is positive definite on large coordinate spheres, and more general on nearly roun…

We calculate the limits of the quasi-local angular momentum and center-of-mass defined by Chen-Wang-Yau \cite{CWY} for a family of spacelike two-spheres approaching future null infinity in an asymptotically flat spacetime admitting a Bondi-Sachs expansion. Our result complements earlier work of Chen-Wang-Yau \cite{CWY2…

Given a Riemannian 3-ball $(\bar B, g)$ of non-negative scalar curvature, Bartnik conjectured that $(\bar B, g)$ admits an asymptotically flat (AF) extension (without horizons) of the least possible ADM mass, and that such a mass-minimizer is an AF solution to the static vacuum Einstein equations, uniquely determined b…

The definition of quasi-local mass for a bounded space-like region in space-time is essential in several major unsettled problems in general relativity. The quasi-local mass is expected to be a type of flux integral on the boundary two-surface and should be independent of whichever space-like region it bounds. An impor…

We define quasi-local conserved quantities in general relativity by using the optimal isometric embedding in [26] to transplant Killing fields in the Minkowski spacetime back to the 2-surface of interest in a physical spacetime. To each optimal isometric embedding, a dual element of the Lie algebra of the Lorentz group…

Characterizes photon surfaces in static spacetimes, proving uniqueness.