Volume 83A, number 6 PHYSICS LETTERS 8 June 1981

A NEW GRAVITATIONAL ENERGY EXPRESSION WITH A SIMPLE POSITIVITY PROOF

James M. NESTER
Theoretical Physics Institute, Department o f Physics, University o f Alberta,
Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2J1, Canada

Received 18 March 1981

We present a new four-dimensionaUy covariant expression whose integral at space-like infinity gives the total energy
for Einstein's theory of gravity. It is easy to show that the integral of its divergence over a space-like hypersurface is posi-
tive thereby providing a simple demonstration that Einstein gravity has positive energy.

Although in Einstein's theory the gravitational field where AFus~ - Pu6t3 - I'us~(flat) ~ O(1/r2) is an
has no local e n e r g y - m o m e n t u m density, for asympto- "asymptotic" tensor. Eq. (1) follows quite simply
tically flat space-times there is a unique total energy from the expression given by Isenberg and myself [5]
- m o m e n t u m four vector which is conserved. Its value and the standard expressions [1,2] are easily deduced
is given by a "flux integral" over the two-sphere at from it.
"infinity" bounding a space-like hypersurface. There A new fully four-covafiant alternate integrand is
is considerable freedom in the choice o f integrand, the
e o~" _ 2 n o ~ ( ~ s ~ ~ v # , - v ~ ~sT~~,), (2)
familiar ones [ 1 ] being non-covafiant.
It was a long standing conjecture that regular space where ff is a Dirac four-spinor field ,2. As long as qJ
-times with physically reasonable matter would have ~kconst + O(1/r) asymptotically, E a takes the form
positive total energy. (For a review see Brill and Jang of the integrand in (1) with u x = ~const,),h~const plus
[2] .) A lengthy and indirect proof was found a few an exact differential plus terms o f order 1/r 3 .
years ago by Schoen and Yan [3]. Recently, Witten A four-covariant integrand allows one to calculate
[4] has proposed a remarkably simple type of argu- the energy as the integral o f its divergence over the
ment using spinor fields. Witten's demonstration is, spatial three-surface (assuming euclidean topology for
however, not quite correct in its present form, as he simplicity)
uses an invalid three-dimensional truncation of the
four-dimensional Gauss divergence theorem. This diffi- 16n'Gpxu x ' ~ { E a dSoa = fv e
dZo. (3)
culty can be avoided by using a suitable four-dimen- S=Ox x
sionally covariant integrand. The divergence of E ~ is easily calculated using
The total e n e r g y - m o m e n t u m four-vector for an [Vu, Vv] $ =-toga . ,r,
2 ~ i~v~'txfl~ " ,
asymptotically flat space-time is given in terms of the
connection by * ,),oC~ + oatL), = _r/oc~83,53, 8 ,

f , , x" x ov au av ,x,6v ~ A~r"u 6#5i dSoa , (1) 2GOb = 2R oh 6 a h R = Z2 ,~Io a 6 O*o~u v

16nGpxuX=- -- ~O,t61zvh ,

S to be

,1 Greek indices range from 0 to 3 and refer to space-time, ,2 Where ~-= ~0+.r0, qcs = "r3'l3'2~'a and V#~0= ~0 a
Latin indices refer to space. The metric signature is (+,-,-,-). + ~r~V#a~v~, with ot~v = ~[-rt~,~v]
1 and "r~,v + ~v"0~= 2g#v.

0 0 3 1 - 9 1 6 3 / 8 1 / 0 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 0 / $ 02.50 North-Holland Publishing Company 241

Volume 83A, number 6
7 a E a = 2Gax~Tx~k + 4 V , ~ (Toa a0 + oat~7)Vt~.
Einstein's equation, G x = 8~rGT~, can now be
used in the first term of (4). Since ~7^~k is non-space-
like this term will provide a non-negative contribution
to (3) if the gravitational source satisfies the dominant
energy condition.
Because 7 a ~f3 + o~t~7 is totally skew, the remain-
ing term in the integrand (in a frame in which the " 0 "
direction is orthonormal to the spatial three-surface) is
4~7a ~('},O oab + oab'),O) Vb I~ = 8V a ~ +o ab ~7b ill
= --4gabVa~k+~7b~ + 4Va~+"/aTb~7b~ .
The first term in (5) is positive definite. Up to here ~k
has had considerable freedom. A suitable restriction
can be made to control the remaining negative defi-
nite term, the simplest choice being the Witten condi-
tion:
7bvb~ =0.
Witten has argued that this first-order elliptic equation
has solutions on the spatial three-surface with the de-
242
PHYSICS LETTERS 8 June 1981
sired asymptotics. With this condition the integrand
(4) (5) is manifestly positive definite. Therefore the gravi-
tational energy integral (3) must be non-negative.
I wish to thank my co-worker J. Isenberg for his
thoughts and especially Professor W. Israel who called
my attention to the difficulty with Witten's proof
and without whose assistance and encouragement this
work would not have been possible.
References
[1] R. Amowitt, S. Deser and C.W. Mimer, Phys. Rev. 122
(5) (1961) 997.
[2] D. Brill and P.S. Jang, The positive mass conjecture, in:
General relativity and gravitation, Vol. I, ed. A Held
(Plenum, New York, 1980).
[3] P. Schoen and S.T. Yau, Commun. Math. Phys. 65 (1979)
45; Phys. Rev. Lett. 43 (1979) 1457.
[4] E. Witten, A simple proof of the positive energy theorem,
Princeton Univ. prepfint (Dec. 1980).
(6) [5] J. Isenberg and J. Nester, Canonical gravity, in: General
relativity and gravitation, Vol. I, ed. A. Held (Plenum,
New York, 1980).