Penrose's Gibbons–Penrose inequality for surfaces in Minkowski spacetime

Let Σ\Sigma be a two-dimensional spacelike closed embedded orientable surface in Minkowski spacetime, diffeomorphic to S2S^2. Let T0R3,1T_0\in\mathbb{R}^{3,1} be a fixed future timelike vector satisfying T0,T0=1\langle T_0,T_0\rangle=-1. Let H\vec{H} be the mean curvature vector of Σ\Sigma, and let J\vec{J} be its dual mean curvature vector. A surface is past null convex when the past null hypersurface generated by it is smooth. Penrose's conjecture. Suppose that Σ\Sigma is past null convex. Then

ΣJ,T0dμ16πΣ.-\int_\Sigma \langle \vec{J},T_0\rangle\,d\mu\geq\sqrt{16\pi\,|\Sigma|}.

This is a spacetime analogue of the Penrose inequality, relating the dual mean-curvature integral to the area of the surface. The source does not state a resolution, so the conjecture is treated as open.

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Primary source

Simon Brendle and Mu-Tao Wang, “A Gibbons-Penrose inequality for surfaces in Schwarzschild spacetime”, arXiv:1303.1863 (2013).

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