Foliations by stable spheres with constant mean curvature for isolated systems without asymptotic symmetry

Abstract

In 1996, Huisken-Yau showed that every three-dimensional Riemannian manifold can be uniquely foliated near infinity by stable closed CMC-surfaces if it is asymptotically equal to the (spatial) Schwarzschild solution and has positive mass. Their assumptions were later weakened by Metzger, Huang, Eichmair-Metzger and others. We further generalize these existence results in dimension three by proving that it is sufficient to assume asymptotic flatness and non-vanishing mass to conclude the existence and uniqueness of the CMC-foliation and explain why this seems to be the conceptually optimal result. Furthermore, we generalize the characterization of the corresponding coordinate CMC-center of mass by the ADM-center of mass proven previously by Corvino-Wu, Huang, Eichmair-Metzger and others (under other assumptions).