Asymptotic flatness and Hawking quasilocal mass

Abstract

We point out an association between anomalies in the Hawking quasilocal mass (or, in spherical symmetry, in its better known version, the Misner-Sharp-Hernandez mass) and unphysical properties of the spacetime geometry. While anomalous behaviors show up in certain quantum-corrected black holes, they are not unique to this context and signal serious physical pathologies of isolated gravitating systems in general.