<p>Asymptotically flat spaces are widely studied because it is one natural way of describing an isolated system in general relativity. In this thesis we study what happens to the Lanczos potential at spacelike infinity in such spacetimes. By transformations of the Weyl-Lanczos equation, we derive expressions for the limiting equations on both the timelike unit hyperboloid, and the timelike unit cylinder. Finally the Newman-Penrose formalism is used to get a component version of the equations.</p>

<p>In this thesis we calculate the Hawking mass numerically for surfaces in Kerr spacetime. The Hawking mass is a useful tool for proving the Penrose inequality and the result does not contradict the inequality. It also does not contradict the assumption that the Hawking mass should be monotonic for surfaces in Kerr spacetime. The Hawking mass is quasi-local and defined by the spin coefficents of Newman and Penrose, so first we give a discussion about quasi-local quantities and then a short description of the Newman-Penrose formalism.</p>

Asymptotically flat spaces are widely studied because it is one natural way of describing an isolated system in general relativity. In this thesis we study what happens to the Lanczos potential at spacelike infinity in such spacetimes. By transformations of the Weyl-Lanczos equation, we derive expressions for the limiting equations on both the timelike unit hyperboloid, and the timelike unit cylinder. Finally the Newman-Penrose formalism is used to get a component version of the equations.

In this thesis we calculate the Hawking mass numerically for surfaces in Kerr spacetime. The Hawking mass is a useful tool for proving the Penrose inequality and the result does not contradict the inequality. It also does not contradict the assumption that the Hawking mass should be monotonic for surfaces in Kerr spacetime. The Hawking mass is quasi-local and defined by the spin coefficents of Newman and Penrose, so first we give a discussion about quasi-local quantities and then a short description of the Newman-Penrose formalism.

<p>Penrose's inequality which relates the total mass of a space-time containing a black hole with the area of the event horizon, is a yet unproven condition that is required for the cosmic censorship hypothesis. It is believed that the inequality could be proved by using properties of the Hawking mass. This thesis gives analytical expressions for the Hawking mass in slowly rotating Kerr and Kerr-Newman space-times. It is also shown that the expressions are monotonically increasing, a result that does not contradict Penrose's inequality.</p>

Penrose's inequality which relates the total mass of a space-time containing a black hole with the area of the event horizon, is a yet unproven condition that is required for the cosmic censorship hypothesis. It is believed that the inequality could be proved by using properties of the Hawking mass. This thesis gives analytical expressions for the Hawking mass in slowly rotating Kerr and Kerr-Newman space-times. It is also shown that the expressions are monotonically increasing, a result that does not contradict Penrose's inequality.

While the formalism of isolated horizons is known for some time, only quite recently the near horizon solution of Einstein's equations has been found in the Bondi-like coordinates by Krishnan in 2012. In this framework, the space-time is regarded as the characteristic initial value problem with the initial data given on the horizon and another null hypersurface. It is not clear, however, what ini- tial data reproduce the simplest physically relevant black hole solution, namely that of Kerr-Newman which describes stationary, axisymmetric black hole with charge. Moreover, Krishnan's construction employs the non-twisting null geodesic congruence and the tetrad which is parallelly propagated along this congruence. While the existence of such tetrad can be easily established in general, its explicit form can be very difficult to find and, in fact it has not been provided for the Kerr-Newman metric. The goal of this thesis was to fill this gap and provide a full description of the Kerr-Newman metric in the framework of isolated horizons. In the theoretical part of the thesis we review the spinor and Newman-Penrose formalism, basic geometry of isolated horizons and then present our results. Thesis is complemented by several appendices.

Within this work we have been interested in the frame approach to analysis of the field equations in the context of theories of gravity, in particular, the Einstein General Relativ- ity and Quadratic theory of gravity. As the starting point we have summarised the least action principle formulation of the General Relativity and introduced the Quadratic grav- ity extending the classic Einstein-Hilbert action by adding quadratic curvature terms. The Quadratic gravity field equation have been rewritten into the form separating the Ricci tensor contribution. As a next step we have reviewed the Newman-Penrose formal- ism on a purely geometrical level and discussed employing the field equations constraints. While in the case of General Relativity it is quite trivial, in the Quadratic gravity it be- comes much more involved, however, the General Relativity procedure can be followed even here. As an illustration, we have formulated the constraints on the gravitational field in the cases of the spherically symmetric spacetimes and so-called pp-waves both in the GR as well as Quadratic gravity. 1