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

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

Stability of Naked Singularity arising in gravitational collapse of Type I matter fields

Considering gravitational collapse of Type I matter fields, we prove that, given an arbitrary $C^{2}$- mass function $\textit{M}(r,v)$ and a $C^{1}$- function $h(r,v)$ (through the corresponding $C^{1}$- metric function $\nu(t,r)$), there exist infinitely many choices of energy distribution function $b(r)$ such that the `true' initial data ($\textit{M},h(r,v)$) leads the collapse to the formation of naked singularity. We further prove that the occurrence of such a naked singularity is stable with respect to small changes in the initial data. We remark that though the initial data leading to both black hole and naked singularity form a "big" subset of the true initial data set, their occurrence is not generic. The terms `stability' and `genericity' are appropriately defined following the theory of dynamical systems. The particular case of radial pressure $p_{r}(r)$ has been illustrated in details to get clear picture of how naked singularity is formed and how, it is stable with respect to initial data.Comment: 16 pages, no figure, Latex, submitted to Praman

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

Gravitational collapse of an isentropic perfect fluid with a linear equation of state

We investigate here the gravitational collapse end states for a spherically symmetric perfect fluid with an equation of state $p=k\rho$. It is shown that given a regular initial data in terms of the density and pressure profiles at the initial epoch from which the collapse develops, the black hole or naked singularity outcomes depend on the choice of rest of the free functions available, such as the velocities of the collapsing shells, and the dynamical evolutions as allowed by Einstein equations. This clarifies the role that equation of state and initial data play towards determining the final fate of gravitational collapse.Comment: 7 Pages, Revtex4, To appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit

A characterization of the central shell-focusing singularity in spherical gravitational collapse

We give a characterization of the central shell-focusing curvature singularity that can form in the spherical gravitational collapse of a bounded matter distribution obeying the dominant energy condition. This characterization is based on the limiting behaviour of the mass function in the neighbourhood of the singularity. Depending on the rate of growth of the mass as a function of the area radius R, the singularity may be either covered or naked. The singularity is naked if this growth rate is slower than R, covered if it is faster than R, and either naked or covered if the growth rate is same as R.Comment: 12 pages, Latex, significantly revised version, including change of title. Revised version to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit

On the Role of Initial Data in the Gravitational Collapse of Inhomogeneous Dust

We consider here the gravitational collapse of a spherically symmetric inhomogeneous dust cloud described by the Tolman-Bondi models. By studying a general class of these models, we find that the end state of the collapse is either a black hole or a naked singularity, depending on the parameters of the initial density distribution, which are $\rho_{c}$, the initial central density of the massive body, and $R_0$, the initial boundary. The collapse ends in a black hole if the dimensionless quantity $\beta$ constructed out of this initial data is greater than 0.0113, and it ends in a naked singularity if $\beta$ is less than this number. A simple interpretation of this result can be given in terms of the strength of the gravitational potential at the starting epoch of the collapse.Comment: Original title changed, numerical range of naked singularity corrected. Plain Tex File. 14 pages. To appear in Physical Review

On the global visibility of singularity in quasi-spherical collapse

We analyze here the issue of local versus the global visibility of a singularity that forms in gravitational collapse of a dust cloud, which has important implications for the weak and strong versions of the cosmic censorship hypothesis. We find conditions as to when a singularity will be only locally naked, rather than being globally visible, thus preseving the weak censorship hypothesis. The conditions for formation of a black hole or naked singularity in the Szekeres quasi-spherical collapse models are worked out. The causal behaviour of the singularity curve is studied by examining the outgoing radial null geodesics, and the final outcome of collapse is related to the nature of the regular initial data specified on an initial hypersurface from which the collapse evolves. An interesting feature that emerges is the singularity in Szekeres spacetimes can be ``directionally naked''.Comment: Latex file, 32 pages, 12 postscript figures. To appear in the Journal of General Relativity and Gravitatio