Stability of the spacetime positive mass theorem in spherical symmetry (Q2024708): Difference between revisions

The positive mass theorem in general relativity implies that an asymptotically flat initial data set for the Einstein equations with zero ADM mass, with matter satisfying the dominant energy condition, must arise from an embedding into Minkowski space, that is, it is flat. This paper addresses the issue of what happens when the mass is small but non-zero. It does so in spherical symmetry and finds the expected result: a sequence of initial data without horizons and with ADM mass tending to zero, arises from embeddings into spacetimes converging to flat space-time.