Nonexistence of solutions to the coupled generalized Jang equation/zero divergence system

Abstract

Abstract In Bray (2011 Asian J. Math. 15 559–612), Bray and Khuri proposed coupling the generalized Jang equation to several different auxiliary equations. The solutions to these coupled systems would then imply the Penrose inequality. One of these involves coupling the generalized Jang equation to d i v ‾ ( ϕ q ) = 0 , as this would guarantee the non-negativity of the scalar curvature in the Jang surface. This coupled system of equations has not received much attention, and we investigate its solvability. We prove that there exists a spherically symmetric initial data set for the Einstein equations for which there do not exist smooth radial solutions to the system having the appropriate asymptotics for application to the Penrose inequality.