Spherical shells of positive density - can they be of non-positive mass?

Abstract

Spherical shells of fluid in general relativity are considered. The density is assumed to be spatially uniform and it is found that there may be three cases of positive, negative and vanishing Schwarzschild mass of the shell although the density and the pressure are both positive throughout. However the negative mass case has to be associated with a singularity representing a negative mass particle and so is unphysical. The zero mass solution has the intriguing feature that the geometry on either side of the shell is Minkowskian and the space is closed. This closure of the space saves the present result from being in contradiction with the positive energy theorems. Earlier investigations claiming zero-mass distributions are also discussed.