The Conformal Conjecture for asymptotically flat three-manifolds with boundary

Let (N,h)(N,h) be a smooth asymptotically flat 3-manifold with compact, smooth, nonempty boundary Σ\Sigma, with hh extending smoothly to Σ\Sigma. Given ϵ>0\epsilon>0, there exists a smooth, positive function uu on NN and metric h0=u4hh_0=u^4h. Let Σ~\widetilde \Sigma be the outermost minimal area enclosure of Σ\Sigma with respect to h0h_0.

Conformal Conjecture. The function uu is harmonic with respect to hh and tends to 1 at infinity; in the metric h0h_0, the areas of Σ~\widetilde \Sigma and Σ\Sigma differ by at most ϵ\epsilon; and Σ~\widetilde \Sigma is disjoint from Σ\Sigma.

The third condition makes Σ~\widetilde \Sigma a smooth zero-mean-curvature surface in h0h_0. The conjecture is known in the spherically symmetric case and is needed for the arguments establishing the ZAS inequality.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Hubert L. Bray and Jeffrey L. Jauregui, “A geometric theory of zero area singularities in general relativity”, arXiv:0909.0522 (2012).

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