Abstract
We give an explicit expression for gravitational energy, written solely in terms of physical spacetime geometry, which (in suitable limits) agrees with the total Arnowitt-Deser-Misner and Trautman-Bondi-Sachs energies for asymptotically flat spacetimes and with the Abbott-Deser energy for asymptotically anti–de Sitter spacetimes. Our expression is a boundary value of the standard gravitational Hamiltonian. Moreover, although it stands alone as such, we derive the expression by picking the zero-point of energy via a “light-cone reference.”
- Received 11 March 1999
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.60.104034
©1999 American Physical Society