Hawking mass and local rigidity of minimal two-spheres in three-manifolds (Q357224)

If \((M,g)\) is a Riemannian three-manifold with bounded scalar curvature, then the Hawking mass of a compact surface \(\Sigma\subset (M,g)\), denoted by \(m_H(\Sigma)\), is defined as \[ m_H(\Sigma)=\left(\frac{|\Sigma|}{16\pi}\right)^{1/2}\left(1-\frac{1}{16\pi}\int_{\Sigma}H^2 d\sigma-\frac{\Lambda}{24\pi}|\Sigma|\right), \] where \(H\) is the mean curvature of \(\Sigma\) and \(\Lambda=\mathrm{inf}_M R\). In this paper the authors study rigidity of minimal two-spheres \(\Sigma\) that locally maximize the Hawking mass on a Riemannian three-manifold with a positive lower bound on its scalar curvature. The authors prove some results concerning the de Sitter-Schwarzschild metrics \(g_a\) on \(\mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{S}^2\). The de Sitter-Schwarzschild metrics on \(\mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{S}^2\) are complete periodic rotationally symmetric metrics with constant positive scalar curvature, and have the slice \(\Sigma_0=\{0\}\times \mathbb{S}^2\) as strictly stable minimal two-sphere. These metrics appear as space-like slices of the de Sitter-Schwarzschild space-time, which is a solution to the vacuum Einstein equation with a positive cosmological constant. The de Sitter-Schwarzschild metrics constitute a one-parameter family of metrics \(\{g_a\}_{a\in(0,1)}\) and, in the paper, the authors scale each \(g_a\) to have scalar curvature equal to 2. The authors begin their study by considering the general situation of a two-sided closed surface \(\Sigma\) which is a critical point of the Hawking mass on a three-manifold \((M,g)\) with \(R\geq 2\). By writing the Euler-Lagrange equation of the mass, the authors prove that whenever \(\Sigma\) has non-negative mean curvature then it must be minimal or umbilical with \(R=2\) and constant Gauss curvature along \(\Sigma\). In particular, whenever \(M\) is the de Sitter-Schwarzschild manifold \((\mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{S}^2,g_a)\), the above says that critical points of the Hawking mass are either minimal surfaces or slices \(\{r\}\times \mathbb{S}^2\). It follows that local maxima of the Hawking mass in \((\mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{S}^2,g_a)\) must be slices. In their first main result the authors show that slices are indeed local maxima in the following sense: Theorem 1.2. Let \(\Sigma_r=\{r\}\times \mathbb{S}^2\) be a slice of the de Sitter-Schwarzschild manifold \((\mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{S}^2,g_a)\). Then there exists an \(\epsilon=\epsilon(r)>0\) such that if \(\Sigma\subset \mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{S}^2\) is an embedded two-sphere, which is a normal graph over \(\Sigma_r\) given by \(\phi\in C^2(\Sigma_r)\) with \(\|\phi\|_{C^2(\Sigma_r)}<\epsilon\), one has (i) either \(m_H(\Sigma)<m_H(\Sigma_r)\); (ii) or \(\Sigma\) is a slice \(\Sigma_s\) for some \(s\). The second main result of the paper is a local rigidity for the de Sitter-Schwarzschild manifold \((\mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{S}^2,g_a)\), which involves strictly stable minimal surfaces and the Hawking mass: Theorem 1.4. Let \((M,g)\) be a Riemannian three-manifold with scalar curvature \(R\geq 2\). If \(\Sigma\subset M\) is an embedded strictly stable minimal two-sphere which locally maximizes the Hawking mass, then the Gauss curvature of \(\Sigma\) in \((M,g)\) is isometric to the de Sitter-Schwarzschild metric \(((-\epsilon,\epsilon)\times \Sigma,g_a)\) for some \(\epsilon>0\).