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.      

Null Fluid Collapse in Rastall Theory of Gravity

A Vaidya spacetime is considered for gravitational collapse of a type II fluid in the context of the Rastall theory of gravity. For a linear equation of state for the fluid profiles, the conditions under which the dynamical evolution of the collapse can give rise to the formation of a naked singularity are examined. It is shown that depending on the model parameters, strong curvature, naked singularities would arise as exact solutions to the Rastall's field equations. The allowed values of these parameters satisfy certain conditions on the physical reliability, nakedness, and the curvature strength of the singularity. It turns out that Rastall gravity, in comparison to general relativity, provides a wider class of physically reasonable spacetimes that admit both locally and globally naked singularities.     

Nordström’s scalar theory of gravity and the equivalence principle

General Relativity obeys the three equivalence principles, the “weak” one (all test bodies fall the same way in a given gravitational field), the “Einstein” one (gravity is locally effaced in a freely falling reference frame) and the “strong” one (the gravitational mass of a system equals its inertial mass to which all forms of energy, including gravitational energy, contribute). The first principle holds because matter is minimally coupled to the metric of a curved spacetime so that test bodies follow geodesics. The second holds because Minkowskian coordinates can be used in the vicinity of any event. The fact that the latter, strong, principle holds is ultimately due to the existence of superpotentials which allow to define the inertial mass of a gravitating system by means of its asymptotic gravitational field, that is, in terms of its gravitational mass. Nordström’s theory of gravity, which describes gravity by a scalar field in flat spacetime, is observationally ruled out. It is however the only theory of gravity with General Relativity to obey the strong equivalence principle. I show in this paper that this remarkable property is true beyond post-newtonian level and can be related to the existence of a “Nordström-Katz” superpotential.     

The Inner Structure of Black Holes

We study the gravitational collapse of a self-gravitating charged scalar-field. Starting with a regular spacetime, we follow the evolution through the formation of an apparent horizon, a Cauchy horizon and a final central singularity. We find a null, weak, mass-inflation singularity along the Cauchy horizon, which is a precursor of a strong, spacelike singularity along the r = 0 hypersurface. The inner black hole region is bounded (in the future) by singularities. This resembles the classical inner structure of a Schwarzschild black hole and it is remarkably different from the inner structure of a charged static Reissner-Nordström or a stationary rotating Kerr black holes.     

Naked Singularities Formation in the Gravitational Collapse of Barotropic Spherical Fluids

The gravitational collapse of spherical, barotropic perfect fluids is analyzed here. For the first time, the final state of these systems is studied without resorting to simplifying assumptions - such as self-similarity - using a new approach based on non-linear o.d.e. techniques, and formation of naked singularities is shown to occur for solutions such that the mass function is analytic in a neighborhood of the spacetime singularity.     

General relativity with a background metric

An attempt is made to remove singularities arising in general relativity by modifying it so as to take into account the existence of a fundamental rest frame in the universe. This is done by introducing a background metric γ_μν (in addition to g_μν) describing a spacetime of constant curvature with positive spatial curvature. The additional terms in the field equations are negligible for the solar system but important for intense fields. Cosmological models are obtained without singular states but simulating the “big bang.” The field of a particle differs from the Schwarzschild field only very close to, and inside, the Schwarzschild sphere. The interior of this sphere is unphysical and impenetrable. A star undergoing gravitational collapse reaches a state in which it fills the Schwarzschild sphere with uniform density (and pressure) and has the geometry of a closed Einstein universe. Any charge present is on the surface of the sphere. Elementary particles may have similar structures.     

On the massive vector field of a black hole and of a naked singularity

It is proved explicitly that the final state of a spherically symmetric gravitational collapse of matter endowed with a massive vector field may appear either as a black hole without any vector field outside the horizon, or as a naked singularity with a non-zero vector “hair”.     

Observers in Kerr spacetimes: the ergoregion on the equatorial plane

We perform a detailed analysis of the properties of stationary observers located on the equatorial plane of the ergosphere in a Kerr spacetime, including light-surfaces. This study highlights crucial differences between black hole and the super-spinner sources. In the case of Kerr naked singularities, the results allow us to distinguish between “weak” and “strong ” singularities, corresponding to spin values close to or distant from the limiting case of extreme black holes, respectively. We derive important limiting angular frequencies for naked singularities. We especially study very weak singularities as resulting from the spin variation of black holes. We also explore the main properties of zero angular momentum observers for different classes of black hole and naked singularity spacetimes.     

Unwrapping Closed Timelike Curves

Closed timelike curves (CTCs) appear in many solutions of the Einstein equation, even with reasonable matter sources. These solutions appear to violate causality and so are considered problematic. Since CTCs reflect the global properties of a spacetime, one can attempt to extend a local CTC-free patch of such a spacetime in a way that does not give rise to CTCs. One such procedure is informally known as unwrapping. However, changes in global identifications tend to lead to local effects, and unwrapping is no exception, as it introduces a special kind of singularity, called quasi-regular. This “unwrapping” singularity is similar to the string singularities. We define an unwrapping of a (locally) axisymmetric spacetime as the universal cover of the spacetime after one or more of the local axes of symmetry is removed. We give two examples of unwrapping of essentially 2+1 dimensional spacetimes with CTCs, the Gott spacetime and the Gödel spacetime. We show that the unwrapped Gott spacetime, while singular, is at least devoid of CTCs. In contrast, the unwrapped Gödel spacetime still contains CTCs through every point. A “multiple unwrapping” procedure is devised to remove the remaining circular CTCs. We conclude that, based on the given examples, CTCs appearing in the solutions of the Einstein equation are not simply a mathematical artifact of coordinate identifications. Alternative extensions of spacetimes with CTCs tend to lead to other pathologies, such as naked quasi-regular singularities.     

Letter: Self-Similar Collapse of Scalar Field with Plane Symmetry

Plane symmetric self-similar solutions to Einstein's four-dimensional theory of gravity are studied and all such solutions are given analytically in closed form. The local and global properties of these solutions are investigated and it is shown that some of the solutions can be interpreted as representing gravitational collapse of the scalar field. During the collapse, trapped surfaces are never developed. As a result, no black hole is formed. Although the collapse always ends with spacetime singularities, it is found that these singularities are spacelike and not naked.     

Quantum evaporation of a naked singularity

We investigate here quantum effects in gravitational collapse of a scalar field model which classically leads to a naked singularity. We show that nonperturbative semiclassical modifications near the singularity, based on loop quantum gravity, give rise to a strong outward flux of energy. This leads to the dissolution of the collapsing cloud before the singularity can form. Quantum gravitational effects thus censor naked singularities by avoiding their formation. Further, quantum gravity induced mass flux has a distinct feature which may lead to a novel observable signature in astrophysical bursts.     

Gravitational collapse and naked singularities

Gravitational collapse is one of the most striking phenomena in gravitational physics. The cosmic censorship conjecture has provided strong motivation for research in this field. In the absence of a general proof for censorship, many examples have been proposed, in which naked singularity is the outcome of gravitational collapse. Recent developments have revealed that there are examples of naked singularity formation in the collapse of physically reasonable matter fields, although the stability of these examples is still uncertain. We propose the concept of ‘effective naked singularities’, which will be quite helpful because general relativity has limitation in its application at the high-energy end. The appearance of naked singularities is not detestable but can open a window for the new physics of strongly curved space-times.     

Naked singularities in a self-similar Tolman-Bondi spacetime

Following Lake and Zannias we show that naked strong curvature singularities develop in Tolman-Bondi inhomogeneous spherically symmetric spacetimes for all the three cases of a bound, unbound and marginally bound gravitational collapse. It is observed that the assumption of self-similarity rather than the spherical symmetry is crucial in determining the nature of the singularity in any gravitationally collapsing configuration.     

Strong curvature naked singularities in non-self-similar gravitational collapse

It is shown that strong curvature naked singularities form in a non-self-similar gravitational collapse of radiation. The imploding radiation space-times with a general form of mass function are analyzed and we show that a strong curvature property holds along all families of non-spacelike geodesies terminating at the singularity in past. In view of the strength of singularity and the non-self-similar nature of space-time, we believe this is a very serious counter-example which must be taken into account for any possible formulation of the cosmic censorship hypothesis.This essay received the fourth award from the Gravity Research Foundation, 1991 — Ed.     

The structure of naked singularity in self-similar gravitational collapse

We study the structure and formation of naked singularities in selfsimilar gravitational collapse for an adiabatic perfect fluid. Conditions are obtained for the singularity to be either locally or globally naked and for the families of non-spacelike geodesics to terminate at the singularity in past. This is shown to be a strong curvature naked singularity in a powerful sense and an interesting relationship is pointed out between positivity of energy and occurrence of naked singularity.     

Singularities,trapped sets,and cosmic censorship in asymptotically flat space-times

We show that space-time is future asymptotically predictable from a regular partial Cauchy provided that singularities are causally preceded by trapped sets. Future asymptotic predictability is a formal statement of cosmic censorship in asymptotically flat space-times. A regular partial Cauchy surface means that singularities in gravitational collapse can arise only from regular initial data. Our result confirms a supposition by Hawking that singularities forced by singularity theorems cannot be naked.     

Gravitational collapse in higher-dimensional charged-Vaidya space-time

We analyze here the gravitational collapse of higher-dimensional charged-Vaidya spacetime. We show that singularities arising in a charged null fluid in higher dimension are always naked violating at least strong cosmic censorship hypothesis (CCH), though not necessarily weak CCH. We show that earlier conclusions on the occurrence of naked singularities in four-dimensional case can be extended essentially in the same manner in 5D case also     

均匀密度零压星的完整的引力解

证明了Oppenheimer和Snyder关于均匀密度零压星的引力塌缩的经典解是不完整的,它并不能正确地连接作为内解和外解的Friedmann度规和Schwarzschild度规;通过在离散时空上拓展解参数而构成了一个完整的引力解,它实现了Friedmann度规和Schwarzschild度规之间的等价连接,并可以证明是奇性自由的;这个完整的引力解显示了物质,引力和离散时空结构之间的关联性 关键词： 均匀密度零压星 Friedmann度规 Schwarzschild度规 离散时空     

Was the big bang a whimper?

In many cases the spatially homogeneous cosmological models of General Relativity begin or end at a “big bang” where the density and temperature of the matter in the universe diverge. However in certain cases the spatially homogeneous development of these universes terminates at a singularity where all physical quantities are well—behaved (a “whimper”) and an associated Cauchy horizon. We examine the existence and nature of these singularities, and the possible fate of matter which crosses the Cauchy horizon in such a universe. The nature of both kinds of singularity is illustrated by simple models based on two-dimensional Minkowski space-time; and the possibility of other types of singularity occuring is considered.