Mass-systole conjecture for generalized asymptotically flat manifolds

Let (M,g,E)(M,g,E) be a generalized asymptotically flat manifold: (M,g)(M,g) is a complete Riemannian nn-manifold without boundary, with n3n\geq 3, EE is an asymptotically flat end, and R(g)L1(E,g)R(g)\in L^1(E,g). Define

sys(M,g,E)=inf{Σg: Σ is a smoothly embedded hypersurface homologous to E in M}.\operatorname{sys}(M,g,E)=\inf\left\{\lvert\Sigma\rvert_g:\ \Sigma\text{ is a smoothly embedded hypersurface homologous to }\partial E\text{ in }M\right\}.

Mass-systole conjecture. If (M,g,E)(M,g,E) has nonnegative scalar curvature, then

m(M,g,E)12(sys(M,g,E)Sn1)n2n1.m(M,g,E)\geq \frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{\operatorname{sys}(M,g,E)}{\lvert\mathbb S^{n-1}\rvert}\right)^{\frac{n-2}{n-1}}.

Moreover, equality holds if and only if either (M,g)(M,g) is isometric to Euclidean space, or there is a strictly outer-minimizing minimal (n1)(n-1)-sphere Σh\Sigma_h homologous to E\partial E such that the region outside Σh\Sigma_h is isometric to the half spatial Schwarzschild manifold with mass m>0m>0.

This conjecture seeks a mass-capacity-type inequality for generalized asymptotically flat manifolds and is motivated by applications to spatial slices of the extreme Reissner–Nordström spacetime. The supplied source does not state whether the conjecture has been resolved.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Yuchen Bi and Jintian Zhu, “Mass-capacity inequality modeled on conformally flat manifolds”, arXiv:2511.13215 (2025).

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