Given a metric $γ$ of nonnegative Gauss curvature and a positive function $H$ on a $2$-sphere $Σ$, we estimate the Bartnik quasi-local mass of $(Σ, γ, H)$ in terms of the area, the total mean curvature, and a quantity depending only on $γ$, measuring the roundness of the metric. If $γ$ has positive Gauss curvature, the roundness of $γ$ in the estimate is controlled by the ratio $κ$ between the maximum and the minimum of the Gauss curvature. As $κ\to 1$, the estimate approaches a sharp estimate for round spheres with arbitrary, positive mean curvature functions.
Enroute we observe an estimate of the supremum of the total mean curvature among nonnegative scalar curvature fill-ins of a closed manifold with positive scalar curvature.
In the context of the Bartnik mass, there are two fundamentally different notions of an extension of some compact Riemannian manifold $(Ω,γ)$ with boundary. In one case, the extension is taken to be a manifold without boundary in which $(Ω,γ)$ embeds isometrically, and in the other case the extension is taken to be a manifold with boundary where the boundary data is determined by $\partial Ω$. We give a type of convexity condition under which we can say both of these types of extensions indeed yield the same value for the Bartnik mass. Under the same hypotheses we prove that the Bartnik mass v…
This paper surveys recent progress on issues related to the Bartnik quasi-local mass $m_B$. In addition, we formulate a number of new problems and conjectures regarding foundational properties of the mass $m_B$. This work is dedicated with pleasure to Robert Bartnik in honor of his 60th birthday.
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 of Bartnik boundary data is also given.
Given a constant mean curvature surface that bounds a compact manifold with nonnegative scalar curvature, we obtain intrinsic conditions on the surface that guarantee the positivity of its Hawking mass. We also obtain estimates of the Bartnik mass of such surfaces, without assumptions on the integral of the squared mean curvature. If the ambient manifold has negative scalar curvature, our method also applies and yields estimates on the hyperbolic Bartnik mass of these surfaces.
It is conjectured that the full (spacetime) Bartnik mass of a surface $Σ$ is realised as the ADM mass of some stationary asymptotically flat manifold with boundary data prescribed by $Σ$. Assuming this holds true for a 1-parameter family of surfaces $Σ_t$ evolving in an initial data set {with the dominant energy condition}, we compute an expression for the derivative of the Bartnik mass along these surfaces. An immediate consequence of this formula is that the Bartnik mass of $Σ_t$ is monotone non-decreasing whenever $Σ_t$ flows outward. It is our pleasure to dedicate this paper to Robert Bart…
Mantoulidis and Schoen developed a novel technique to handcraft asymptotically flat extensions of Riemannian manifolds $(Σ\cong \mathbb{S}^2,g)$, with $g$ satisfying $λ_1 = λ_1(-Δ_g + K(g))>0$, where $λ_1$ is the first eigenvalue of the operator $-Δ_g+K(g)$ and $K(g)$ is the Gaussian curvature of $g$, with control on the ADM mass of the extension. Remarkably, this procedure allowed them to compute the Bartnik mass in this so-called minimal case; the Bartnik mass is a notion of quasi-local mass in General Relativity which is very challenging to compute. In this survey, we describe the Mantoulid…
Quite a number of distinct versions of Bartnik's definition of quasi-local mass appear in the literature, and it is not a priori clear that any of them produce the same value in general. In this paper we make progress on reconciling these definitions. The source of discrepancies is two-fold: the choice of boundary conditions (of which there are three variants) and the non-degeneracy or "no-horizon" condition (at least six variants). To address the boundary conditions, we show that given a 3-dimensional region $Ω$ of nonnegative scalar curvature ($R \geq 0$) extended in a Lipschitz fashion acro…
In this paper we characterize the intrinsic geometry of apparent horizons (outermost marginally outer trapped surfaces) in asymptotically flat spacetimes; that is, the Riemannian metrics on the two sphere which can arise. Furthermore we determine the minimal ADM mass of a spacetime containing such an apparent horizon. The results are conveniently formulated in terms of the quasi-local mass introduced by Bartnik in 1989. The Hawking mass provides a lower bound for Bartnik's quasilocal mass on apparent horizons by way of Penrose's conjecture on time symmetric slices, proven in 1997 by Huisken an…
Given a sphere with Bartnik data close to that of a round sphere in Euclidean 3-space, we compute its Bartnik-Bray outer mass to first order in the data's deviation from the standard sphere. The Hawking mass gives a well-known lower bound, and an upper bound is obtained by estimating the mass of a static vacuum extension. As an application we confirm that in a time-symmetric slice concentric geodesic balls shrinking to a point have mass-to-volume ratio converging to the energy density at their center, in accord with physical expectation and the behavior of other quasilocal masses. For balls sh…
We prove that the space of initial data sets which have fixed Bartnik boundary data and solve the constraint equations is a Banach manifold. Moreover, on this constraint manifold the critical points of the ADM mass are exactly the initial data sets which admit generalised Killing vector fields with asymptotic limit proportional to the ADM energy-momentum vector.
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 by natural geometric conditions on the boundary data of $(\bar B, g)$. We prove the validity of the second statement, i.e.~such mass-minimizers, if they exist, are indeed AF solutions of the static vacuum equations. On the other hand, we prove that the first statement is not true …
The Bartnik mass is a quasi-local mass tailored to asymptotically flat Riemannian manifolds with non-negative scalar curvature. From the perspective of general relativity, these model time-symmetric domains obeying the dominant energy condition without a cosmological constant. There is a natural analogue of the Bartnik mass for asymptotically hyperbolic Riemannian manifolds with a negative lower bound on scalar curvature which model time-symmetric domains obeying the dominant energy condition in the presence of a negative cosmological constant. Following the ideas of Mantoulidis and Schoen [20…
We introduce the concept of improvability of the dominant energy scalar, and we derive strong consequences of non-improvability. In particular, we prove that a non-improvable initial data set without local symmetries must sit inside a null perfect fluid spacetime carrying a global Killing vector field. We also show that the dominant energy scalar is always almost improvable in a precise sense. Using these main results, we provide a characterization of Bartnik mass minimizing initial data sets which makes substantial progress toward Bartnik's stationary conjecture. Along the way we observe that…
Let $g$ be a metric on the $2$-sphere $\mathbb{S}^2$ with positive Gaussian curvature and $H$ be a positive constant. Under suitable conditions on $(g, H)$, we construct smooth, asymptotically flat $3$-manifolds $M$ with non-negative scalar curvature, with outer-minimizing boundary isometric to $(\mathbb{S}^2, g)$ and having mean curvature $H$, such that near infinity $M$ is isometric to a spatial Schwarzschild manifold whose mass $m$ can be made arbitrarily close to a constant multiple of the Hawking mass of $(\mathbb{S}^2,g,H)$. Moreover, this constant multiplicative factor depends only on $…
We construct asymptotically flat, scalar flat extensions of Bartnik data $(Σ, γ, H)$, where $γ$ is a metric of positive Gauss curvature on a two-sphere $Σ$, and $H$ is a function that is either positive or identically zero on $Σ$, such that the mass of the extension can be made arbitrarily close to the half area radius of $(Σ, γ)$. In the case of $H \equiv 0$, the result gives an analogue of a theorem of Mantoulidis and Schoen, but with extensions that have vanishing scalar curvature. In the context of initial data sets in general relativity, the result produces asymptotically flat, time-symme…
We investigate Bartnik's static metric extension conjecture under the additional assumption of axisymmetry of both the given Bartnik data and the desired static extensions. To do so, we suggest a geometric flow approach, coupled to the Weyl-Papapetrou formalism for axisymmetric static solutions to the Einstein vacuum equations. The elliptic Weyl-Papapetrou system becomes a free boundary value problem in our approach. We study this new flow and the coupled flow--free boundary value problem numerically and find axisymmetric static extensions for axisymmetric Bartnik data in many situations, incl…
Generalising a proof by Bartnik in the asymptotically Euclidean case, we give an elementary proof of positivity of the hyperbolic mass near the hyperbolic space. It is a pleasure to dedicate this work to Robert Bartnik on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
The Bartnik mass is a notion of quasi-local mass which is remarkably difficult to compute. Mantoulidis and Schoen [2016] developed a novel technique to construct asymptotically flat extensions of minimal Bartnik data in such a way that the ADM mass of these extensions is well-controlled, and thus, they were able to compute the Bartnik mass for minimal spheres satisfying a stability condition. In this work, we develop extensions and gluing tools, à la Mantoulidis and Schoen, for time-symmetric initial data sets for the Einstein-Maxwell equations that allow us to compute the value of an ad-hoc n…
Let $g$ be a smooth Riemannian metric on $\mathbb{S}^2$ and $H>0$ a constant. We establish an upper bound for the corresponding Bartnik mass $\mathfrak m_B(\mathbb{S}^2, g, H)$ assuming that the Gauss curvature $K_g$ is non-negative. Our upper bound approaches the Hawking mass $\mathfrak m_H(\mathbb{S}^2, g, H)$ when either $g$ becomes round or else $H\to 0$, the bound is zero for $H$ sufficiently large, and in any case the bound is not more than $r/2=\mathfrak m_H(\mathbb{S}^2, g, 0)$. We obtain upper bounds on $\mathfrak m_B(\mathbb{S}^2, g, H)$ as well in the case when $g$ is arbitrary and …
We provide estimates on the Bartnik mass of constant mean curvature (CMC) surfaces which are diffeomorphic to spheres and have positive mean curvature. We prove that the Bartnik mass is bounded from above by the Hawking mass and a new notion we call the asphericity mass. The asphericity mass is defined by applying Hamilton's modified Ricci flow and depends only upon the restricted metric of the surface and not on its mean curvature. The theorem is proven by studying a class of asymptotically flat Riemannian manifolds foliated by surfaces satisfying Hamilton's modified Ricci flow with prescribe…
In this note we show that if $g$ is a smooth Riemannian metric on $\mathbb{S}^2$ such that the first eigenvalue of the operator $L_g:=-Δ_g +K_g$ satisfies $λ_1(L_g)=0$ then $(\mathbb{S}^2, g)$ arises as an apparent horizon in an asymptotically flat initial data set with ADM mass arbitrarily close to the associated Hawking mass $\sqrt{\text{area}(\mathbb{S}^2, g)/16π}$. In particular, this determines the Bartnik quasilocal mass (introduced by Bartnik \cite{Bartnik} in 1989) associated with $(\mathbb{S}^2, g)$ in this setting. We prove these by modifying the construction of Mantoulidis-Schoen \c…
In this paper, we consider the problem of nonnegative scalar curvature (NNSC) cobordism of Bartnik data $(Σ_1^{n-1}, γ_1, H_1)$ and $(Σ_2^{n-1}, γ_2, H_2)$. We prove that given two metrics $γ_1$ and $γ_2$ on $S^{n-1}$ ($3\le n\le 7$) with $H_1$ fixed, then $(S^{n-1}, γ_1, H_1)$ and $(S^{n-1}, γ_2, H_2)$ admit no NNSC cobordism provided the prescribed mean curvature $H_2$ is large enough(Theorem \ref{highdimnoncob0}). Moreover, we show that for $n=3$, a much weaker condition that the total mean curvature $\int_{S^2}H_2dμ_{γ_2}$ is large enough rules out NNSC cobordisms(Theorem \ref{2-d0}); if w…
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 an asymptotically flat and scalar flat {\em static} metric extension in $M = \R^3 \setminus B_1$ such that it satisfies Bartnik's geometric boundary condition \cite{Bartnik_energy} on $\partial B_1$.
We generalize Y. Shi and L.-F.\ Tam's \cite{ShiTam} nonnegativity result for the Brown-York mass, by considering nonnegative scalar curvature (NNSC) fill-ins that need only be complete rather than compact. Moreover, the NNSC fill-ins need not even be complete as long the incompleteness is ``shielded'' by a region with positive scalar curvature and occurs occurs sufficiently far away. We accomplish this by generalizing P.~Miao's~\cite{Miao02} positive mass theorem with corners to asymptotically flat manifolds that may have other complete ends, or possibly incomplete ends that are appropriately …
We prove rigidity results involving the Hawking mass for surfaces immersed in a $3$-dimensional, complete Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$ with non-negative scalar curvature (resp. with scalar curvature bounded below by $-6$). Roughly, the main result states that if an open subset $Ω\subset M$ satisfies that every point has a neighbourhood $U\subset Ω$ such that the supremum of the Hawking mass of surfaces contained in $U$ is non-positive, then $Ω$ is locally isometric to Euclidean ${\mathbb R}^3$ (resp. locally isometric to the Hyperbolic 3-space ${\mathbb H}^3$). Under mild asymptotic conditions …
In this short note, we formulate three problems relating to nonnegative scalar curvature (NNSC) fill-ins. Loosely speaking, the first two problems focus on: When are $(n-1)$-dimensional Bartnik data $\big(Σ_i ^{n-1}, γ_i, H_i\big)$, $i=1,2$, NNSC-cobordant? (i.e., there is an $n$-dimensional compact Riemannian manifold $\big(Ω^n, g\big)$ with scalar curvature $R(g)\geq 0$ and the boundary $\partial Ω=Σ_{1} \cup Σ_{2}$ such that $γ_i$ is the metric on $Σ_i ^{n-1}$ induced by $g$, and $H_i$ is the mean curvature of $Σ_i$ in $\big(Ω^n, g\big)$). If $\big(\mathbb{S}^{n-1},γ_{\rm std},0\big)$ is po…
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 $(Σ,γ)$ with mean curvature $H$. Considering the perturbed data $(Σ, γ, λH)$ for a positive real parameter $λ$, we find that such a "fill-in" $(Ω,g)$ must exist for $λ$ small and cannot exist for $λ$ large; moreover, we prove there exists an intermediate threshold value. The main applic…
We extend the idea and techniques in \cite{Miao} to study variational effect of the boundary geometry on the ADM mass of an asymptotically flat manifold. We show that, for a Lipschitz asymptotically flat metric extension of a bounded Riemannian domain with quasi-convex boundary, if the boundary mean curvature of the extension is dominated by but not identically equal to the one determined by the given domain, we can decrease its ADM mass while raising its boundary mean curvature. Thus our analysis implies that, for a domain with quasi-convex boundary, the geometric boundary condition holds in …
We study scalar curvature deformation for asymptotically locally hyperbolic (ALH) manifolds with nonempty compact boundary. We show that the scalar curvature map is locally surjective among either (1) the space of metrics that coincide exponentially toward the boundary, or (2) the space of metrics with arbitrarily prescribed nearby Bartnik boundary data. Using those results, we characterize the ALH manifolds that minimize the Wang-Chruściel-Herzlich mass integrals in great generality and establish the rigidity of the positive mass theorems.
In this paper we consider the positive mass theorem for general initial data sets satisfying the dominant energy condition which are singular across a piecewise smooth surface. We find jump conditions on the metric and second fundamental form which are sufficient for the positivity of the total spacetime mass. Our method extends that of Hirsch-Kazaras-Khuri to the singular case (which we refer to as initial data sets with corners) using some ideas from Hirsch-Miao-Tsang. As such we give an integral lower bound on the spacetime mass and we characterise the case of zero mass. Our approach also l…
It is well-know that Hawking mass is nonnegative for a stable constant mean curvature ($CMC$) sphere in three manifold of nonnegative scalar curvature. R. Bartnik proposed the rigidity problem of Hawking mass of stable $CMC$ spheres. In this paper, we show partial rigidity results of Hawking mass for stable $CMC$ spheres in asymptotic flat ($AF$) manifolds with nonnegative scalar curvature. If the Hawking mass of a nearly round stable $CMC$ surface vanishes, then the surface must be standard sphere in $\mathbb{R}^3 $ and the interior of the surface is flat. The similar results also hold for as…
We give some lower estimates of the ADM mass of an asymptotically flat (AF) Riemannian manifold without assuming that the scalar curvature of the manifold is nonnegative. Some sufficient conditions for an AF manifold to have nonnegative ADM mass are obtained. We also give some lower estimates of the Brown-York mass of a compact three manifold with smooth boundary. From these estimates, we generalize some previous results of the authors.
The Positive Mass Theorem implies that any smooth, complete, asymptotically flat 3-manifold with non-negative scalar curvature which has zero total mass is isometric to (R^3, delta_{ij}). In this paper, we quantify this statement using spinors and prove that if a complete, asymptotically flat manifold with non-negative scalar curvature has small mass and bounded isoperimetric constant, then the manifold must be close to (R^3,delta_{ij}), in the sense that there is an upper bound for the L^2 norm of the Riemannian curvature tensor over the manifold except for a set of small measure. This curvat…
Let $(M,g)$ be a complete connected $n$-dimensional Riemannian spin manifold without boundary such that the scalar curvature satisfies $R_g\geq -n(n-1)$ and $\mathcal{E}\subset M$ be an asymptotically hyperbolic end, we prove that the mass functional of the end $\mathcal{E}$ is timelike future-directed or zero. Moreover, it vanishes if and only if $(M,g)$ is isometric to the hyperbolic space. We also consider the mass of an asymptotically hyperbolic manifold with compact boundary, we prove the mass is timelike future-directed if the mean curvature of the boundary is bounded from below by a fun…
