Exact Solutions in General Relativity - The Positive Energy Theorem

The Positive Energy Theorem

Another issue we might worry about is whether the net mass-energy of an isolated concentration of positive mass-energy density (and momentum) always yields a well-defined (and non-negative) net mass. This result was finally proven by Richard Schoen and Shing-Tung Yau in 1979, who made an additional technical assumption about the nature of the stress-energy tensor.

The original proof is very difficult; Edward Witten soon presented a much shorter "physicist's proof", which has been justified by mathematicians—using further very difficult arguments. Roger Penrose and others have also offered alternative arguments for variants of the original positive energy theorem.

Read more about this topic:  Exact Solutions In General Relativity

Famous quotes containing the words positive, energy and/or theorem:

    “It is easy and dismally enervating to think of opposition as merely perverse or actually evil—far more invigorating to see it as essential for honing the mind, and as a positive good in itself. For the day that moral issues cease to be fought over is the day the word “human” disappears from the race.”
    —Jill Tweedie (b. 1936)

    “While the State becomes inflated and hypertrophied in order to obtain a firm enough grip upon individuals, but without succeeding, the latter, without mutual relationships, tumble over one another like so many liquid molecules, encountering no central energy to retain, fix and organize them.”
    —Emile Durkheim (1858–1917)

    “To insure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough, a police force is needed as well.”
    —Albert Camus (1913–1960)