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.

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