Mass, Conformal Capacity, and the Volumetric Penrose Inequality

Abstract

Let $\Omega$ be a smooth, bounded subset of $\mathbb{R}^3$ diffeomorphic to a ball. Consider $M = \mathbb{R}^3 \setminus \Omega$ equipped with an asymptotically flat metric $g = f^4 g_{\text{euc}}$, where $f\to 1$ at infinity. Assume that $g$ has non-negative scalar curvature and that $\Sigma = \partial M$ is a minimal 2-sphere in the $g$ metric. We prove a sharp inequality relating the ADM mass of $M$ with the conformal capacity of $\Omega$. As a corollary, we deduce a sharp lower bound for the ADM mass of $M$ in terms of the Euclidean volume of $\Omega$. We also prove a stability type result for this ``volumetric Penrose inequality.'' The proofs are based on a monotonicity formula holding along the level sets of a 3-harmonic function.