We prove the Riemannian Penrose Conjecture, an important case of a
conjecture [P] made by Roger Penrose in 1973, by defining a new
flow of metrics. This flow of metrics stays inside the class of
asymptotically flat Riemannian 3-manifolds with nonnegative scalar
curvature which contain minimal spheres. In particular, if we
consider a Riemannian 3-manifold as a totally geodesic submanifold of
a space-time in the context of general relativity, then outermost
minimal spheres with total area $A$ correspond to apparent horizons of
black holes contributing a mass $\sqrt{A/16\pi}$, scalar curvature
corresponds to local energy density at each point, and the rate at
which the metric becomes flat at infinity corresponds to total mass
(also called the ADM mass). The Riemannian Penrose Conjecture then
states that the total mass of an asymptotically flat 3-manifold with
nonnegative scalar curvature is greater than or equal to the mass
contributed by the black holes.\\
\mbox{\quad}The flow of metrics we define continuously evolves the original
3-metric to a Schwarzschild 3-metric, which represents a spherically
symmetric black hole in vacuum. We define the flow such that the area
of the minimal spheres (which flow outward) and hence the mass
contributed by the black holes in each of the metrics in the flow is
constant, and then use the Positive Mass Theorem to show that the
total mass of the metrics is nonincreasing. Then since the total mass
equals the mass of the black hole in a Schwarzschild metric, the
Riemannian Penrose Conjecture follows.\\
\mbox{\quad}We also refer the reader to the beautiful work of Huisken
and Ilmanen
[HI], who used inverse mean curvature flows of surfaces to prove
that the total mass is at least the mass contributed
by the largest black hole.