Total mass and limits of quasi-local mass at future null infinity

Abstract

An idealized observer of an astronomical event is situated at future null infinity, where light rays emitted from the source approach. Mathematically, null infinity corresponds to the portion of the spacetime boundary defined by equivalence classes of null geodesics. But what can we observe at future null infinity? In the note, we start by reviewing the description of null infinity in terms of the Bondi-Sachs coordinate system. In particular, we reformulate and extend the invariance of Bondi mass and the mass loss formula in terms of a modified mass aspect 2-form. At the end, we discuss new results about the limit of quasilocal mass of unit spheres at null infinity in a Bondi-Sachs coordinate system. This is based on joint work with Po-Ning Chen, Jordan Keller, Ye-Kai Wang, and Shing-Tung Yau.