General Definition of Gravitational Tension

In this note we give a general definition of the gravitational tension in a given asymptotically translationally-invariant spatial direction of a space-time. The tension is defined via the extrinsic curvature in analogy with the Hawking-Horowitz definition of energy. We show the consistency with the ADM tension formulas for asymptotically-flat space-times, in particular for Kaluza-Klein black hole solutions. Moreover, we apply the general tension formula to near-extremal branes, constituting a check for non-asymptotically flat space-times.