A simple derivation of canonical structure and quasi-local Hamiltonians in general relativity (Q1356639)

In their fundamental paper in [Gravitation: an Introduction to Current Research, L. Witten, ed. (Wiley, New York) 7-265 (1962; Zbl 0115.43103)], \textit{R. L. Arnowitt, S. Deser} and \textit{C. W. Misner} have proposed a commonly accepted definition of the total field energy in an asymptotically flat spacetime, known under the name of ADM mass. The definition was, in principle, derived in the Hamiltonian framework and the energy was, in principle, meant as the value of the Hamiltonian describing the evolution of the field. However, some extra manipulations with surface terms were necessary in order to obtain the final formula. These manipulations obscure greatly the Hamiltonian aspects of the ADM mass. In the past few decades, much interest has been devoted to ``quasi-local'' definitions of energy. Most of these definitions are based on very elegant, geometric constructions; on the other hand, they have no a priori relation with the Hamiltonian field dynamics. In this paper the author proves that the Hamiltonian approach may be reconciled with the ``quasi-local'' philosophy, if one only decides from the very beginning to describe the field dynamics in a finite volume with boundary. For this purpose the author chooses a (spatially-bounded) world tube and performs the standard Legendre transformation from the Lagrangian to the Hamiltonian description of the dynamics within the tube. This way, one is lead unambiguously to the quasi-local field Hamiltonians, each of them corresponding to a specific ``control mode'' of boundary data. Moreover, all the surface integrals which arise in this construction have a nice interpretation in terms of the geometry of the tube. At the very end of this construction, one may pass to infinity with the tube. This way, the standard ADM results are reproduced. From the point of view of this limit the obtained results may be considered as another derivation of the ADM canonical structure and the ADM mass. Two different forms of gravitational quasi-local energy are derived. Each of them is equal to the field Hamiltonian, corresponding to a specific way of controlling the field boundary data. They play the role of the ``internal energy'' and the ``free energy'', respectively. A relation with the boundary formula governing the thermodynamics of black holes is discussed.