Hawking Mass Monotonicity for Initial Data Sets

Abstract

We introduce new systems of PDE on initial data sets $(M,g,k)$ whose solutions model double-null foliations. This allows us to generalize Geroch's monotonicity formula for the Hawking mass under inverse mean curvature flow to initial data sets satisfying the dominant energy condition. We study the existence theory of these systems and give geometric applications.

To appear in Asian J. Math