Compact approach to the positivity of Brown-York mass]{Compact approach to the positivity of Brown-York mass and rigidity of manifolds with mean-convex boundaries in flat and spherical contexts

Abstract

In this article we develope a spinorial proof of the Shi-Tam theorem for the positivity of the Brown-York mass without necessity of building non smooth infinite asymptotically flat hypersurfaces in the Euclidean space and use the positivity of the ADM mass proved by Schoen-Yau and Witten. This same compact approach provides an optimal lower bound \cite{HMZ} for the first non null eigenvalue of the Dirac operator of a mean convex boundary for a compact spin manifold with non negative scalar curvature, an a rigidity result for mean-convex bodies in flat spaces. The same machinery provides analogous, but new, results of this type, as far as we know, in spherical contexts, including a version of Min-Oo's conjecture