Quasi-spherical gravitational collapse and the role of initial data, anisotropy and inhomogeneity

In this paper, the role of anisotropy and inhomogeneity has been studied in quasi-spherical gravitational collapse. Also the role of initial data has been investigated in characterizing the final state of collapse. Finally, a linear transformation on the initial data set has been presented and its impact has been discussed.Comment: RevTex, 7 Latex pages, No figure

On the genericity of spacetime singularities

We consider here the genericity aspects of spacetime singularities that occur in cosmology and in gravitational collapse. The singularity theorems (that predict the occurrence of singularities in general relativity) allow the singularities of gravitational collapse to be either visible to external observers or covered by an event horizon of gravity. It is shown that the visible singularities that develop as final states of spherical collapse are generic. Some consequences of this fact are discussed.Comment: 19 pages, To be published in the Raychaudhuri Volume, eds. Naresh Dadhich, Pankaj Joshi and Probir Ro

Genericity aspects in gravitational collapse to black holes and naked singularities

We investigate here the genericity and stability aspects for naked singularities and black holes that arise as the final states for a complete gravitational collapse of a spherical massive matter cloud. The form of the matter considered is a general Type I matter field, which includes most of the physically reasonable matter fields such as dust, perfect fluids and such other physically interesting forms of matter widely used in gravitation theory. We first study here in some detail the effects of small pressure perturbations in an otherwise pressure-free collapse scenario, and examine how a collapse evolution that was going to the black hole endstate would be modified and go to a naked singularity, once small pressures are introduced in the initial data. This allows us to understand the distribution of black holes and naked singularities in the initial data space. Collapse is examined in terms of the evolutions allowed by Einstein equations, under suitable physical conditions and as evolving from a regular initial data. We then show that both black holes and naked singularities are generic outcomes of a complete collapse, when genericity is defined in a suitable sense in an appropriate space.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures, some changes in text and figures to match the version accepted for publication by IJMP

The Final Fate of Spherical Inhomogeneous Dust Collapse

We examine the role of the initial density and velocity distribution in the gravitational collapse of a spherical inhomogeneous dust cloud. Such a collapse is described by the Tolman-Bondi metric which has two free functions: the `mass-function' and the `energy function', which are determined by the initial density and velocity profile of the cloud. The collapse can end in a black-hole or a naked singularity, depending on the initial parameters characterizing these profiles. In the marginally bound case, we find that the collapse ends in a naked singularity if the leading non-vanishing derivative of the density at the center is either the first one or the second one. If the first two derivatives are zero, and the third derivative non-zero, the singularity could either be naked or covered, depending on a quantity determined by the third derivative and the central density. If the first three derivatives are zero, the collapse ends in a black hole. In particular, the classic result of Oppenheimer and Snyder, that homogeneous dust collapse leads to a black hole, is recovered as a special case. Analogous results are found when the cloud is not marginally bound, and also for the case of a cloud starting from rest. We also show how the strength of the naked singularity depends on the density and velocity distribution. Our analysis generalizes and simplifies the earlier work of Christodoulou and Newman [4,5] by dropping the assumption of evenness of density functions. It turns out that relaxing this assumption allows for a smooth transition from the naked singularity phase to the black-hole phase, and also allows for the occurrence of strong curvature naked singularities.Comment: 23 pages; Plain Tex; TIFR-TAP preprin

Lightweight Modular Instrumentation for Planetary Applications

An instrumentation, called Space Active Modular Materials ExperimentS (SAMMES), is developed for monitoring the spacecraft environment and for accurately measuring the degradation of space materials in low earth orbit (LEO). The SAMMES architecture concept can be extended to instrumentation for planetary exploration, both on spacecraft and in situ. The operating environment for planetary application will be substantially different, with temperature extremes and harsh solar wind and cosmic ray flux on lunar surfaces and temperature extremes and high winds on venusian and Martian surfaces. Moreover, instruments for surface deployment, which will be packaged in a small lander/rover (as in MESUR, for example), must be extremely compact with ultralow power and weight. With these requirements in mind, the SAMMES concept was extended to a sensor/instrumentation scheme for the lunar and Martian surface environment

On trapped surface formation in gravitational collapse II

Further to our consideration on trapped surfaces in gravitational collapse, where pressures were allowed to be negative while satisfying weak energy condition to avoid trapped surface formation, we discuss here several other attempts of similar nature in this direction. Certain astrophysical aspects are pointed out towards examining the physical realization of such a possibility in realistic gravitational collapse