POSITIVITY OF THE TOTAL MASS OF A GENERAL SPACE-TIME

The positive-mass conjecture states that for a nontrivial isolated physical system, the total energy, which includes contributions from both matter and gravitation, is positive. This assertion has been demonstrated in the important case when the space-time admits a maximal slice. Here this assumption is removed and the general mass conjecture is demonstrated. Also the topology of all possible asymptotically flat space-times satisfying the local energy condition is determined. © 1979 The American Physical Society.