On a spacetime positive mass theorem with corners

Abstract: In this paper we consider the positive mass theorem for general initial data sets satisfying the dominant energy condition which are singular across a piecewise smooth surface. We find jump conditions on the metric and second fundamental form which are sufficient for the positivity of the total spacetime mass. Our method extends that of Hirsch-Kazaras-Khuri to the singular case (which we refer to as initial data sets with corners) using some ideas from Hirsch-Miao-Tsang. As such we give an integral lower bound on the spacetime mass and we characterise the case of zero mass. Our approach also leads to a new notion of quasilocal mass which we show to be positive, extending the work of Shi-Tam to the spacetime case. Moreover, we give sufficient conditions under which spacetime Bartnik data sets cannot admit a fill-in satisfying the dominant energy condition. This generalises the work of Shi-Wang-Wei-Zhu and Shi-Wang-Wei to the spacetime setting.