Conserved quantities in General Relativity: the case of initial data sets with a noncompact boundary

TL;DR

This paper reviews and extends the theory of conserved quantities in General Relativity to initial data sets with non-compact boundaries, emphasizing the role of scalar and mean curvature bounds in establishing fundamental geometric inequalities.

Contribution

It introduces extensions of classical conserved quantities and inequalities to initial data sets with non-compact boundaries, highlighting new rigidity and flexibility phenomena.

Findings

Lower bounds for scalar curvature and boundary mean curvature are crucial.

Extensions of positive mass theorems and Penrose inequalities are discussed.

Rigidity and flexibility phenomena depend on boundary conditions and curvature bounds.

Abstract

It is well-known that considerations of symmetry lead to the definition of a host of conserved quantities (energy, linear momentum, center of mass, etc.) for an asymptotically flat initial data set, and a great deal of progress in Mathematical Relativity in recent decades essentially amounts to establishing fundamental properties for such quantities (positive mass theorems, Penrose inequalities, geometric representation of the center of mass by means of isoperimetric foliations at infinity, etc.) under suitable energy conditions. In this article I first review certain aspects of this classical theory and then describe how they can be (partially) extended to the setting in which the initial data set carries a non-compact boundary. In this case, lower bounds for the scalar curvature in the interior and for the mean curvature along the boundary both play a key role. Our presentation aims to highlight various rigidity/flexibility phenomena coming from the validity, or lack thereof, of the corresponding positive mass theorems and/or Penrose inequalities.