Equality of ADM mass and generalized Komar energy in asymptotically-flat dynamical spacetimes
Abstract
We find a relation between the ADM mass and a generalized Komar energy in asymptotically-flat spacetime. We do not need to assume the existence of either a Killing or even asymptotically-Killing vector field. Instead, our generalized Komar energy is constructed from the normal evolution vector (the lapse function times the future-directed unit normal to the spacelike hypersurfaces on which the ADM mass is measured). We find equality between the ADM mass and this generalized Komar energy even for dynamical asymptotically-flat spacetimes provided the 3-dimensional Einstein tensor drops off quickly enough at spatial infinity, in particular, whenever . No additional assumptions are required for equality. As this generalized energy is fully covariant, it may provide a powerful tool for analyzing energy content in dynamical spacetimes containing compact objects.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2509.05928,
title = {Equality of ADM mass and generalized Komar energy in asymptotically-flat dynamical spacetimes},
author = {Zhi-Wei Wang and Samuel L. Braunstein},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.05928},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
11 pages, 2 figures