Positivity of Brown-York mass with quasi-positive boundary data (Q2290437)

The authors prove positivity of Brown-York mass under quasi-positive boundary data. In particular they show the following main result: Let \((\Omega ,g)\) be a compact three manifold with smooth boundary \(\partial\Omega\). Let \(\Sigma\) be a component of \(\partial\Omega\). Assume the following: (a) \(\partial\Omega\) has nonnegative mean curvature. (b) \(\Sigma\) has quasi positive Gaussian curvature. (c) \((\Omega ,g)\) has nonnegative scalar curvature. Then the following holds: (i) Positivity: \(\mathfrak{m}_{BY}(\Sigma; \Omega,g)\ge 0\). (ii) Rigidity: Suppose \(\mathfrak{m}_{BY}(\Sigma; \Omega,g)=0\). Then \(\partial \Omega\) is connected, \(\Omega\) is homeomorphic to the unit ball in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) and \((\Omega,g)\) is isometric to a domain in \(\mathbb{R}^3\).