Iva Stavrov, Lewis & Clark
Title: Interaction energy and effective mass of relativistic dust clouds
Abstract: The non-linearity of general relativity manifests
itself in the form of interaction energy between diffrent parts of
a
matter distribution, making it difficult to view a cloud of
matter as
being made up of point-source
constituents. Consequently, and in
contrast to Newtonian (linear)
theory of gravity, it is not possible
to view relativistic mass as
being an integral of mass density. In
fact, defining a suitable
notion of quasi-local mass is still one of
the most investigated
problems in general relativity. The goal of this
talk is to argue
that in certain relativistic frameworks it is in fact
possible to
view a cloud of relativistic dust as being made up of
point-source
constituents.