New results on the dynamics of critical collapse

Abstract

We study the dynamics of critical collapse of a spherically symmetric scalar field. Approximate analytic expressions for the metric functions and matter field in the large-radius region are obtained. It is found that because of the boundary conditions at the center, in the central region, the equation of motion for the scalar field is reduced to the flat-spacetime form. On the other hand, due to the connection to its neighbouring region where gravity plays an important role, the scalar field in the central region feels the gravitational effects indirectly.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure