Gravitational collapse of rotating spheroids and the formation of naked singularities
- Creators
- Shapiro, Stuart L.
- Teukolsky, Saul A.
Abstract
We explore numerically the effect of rotation on the collapse of collisionless gas spheroids in full general relativity. The spheroids are initially prolate and consist of equal numbers of corotating and counterrotating particles. We have previously shown that in the absence of rotation the spheroids all collapse to spindle singularities. When the spheroids are sufficiently compact, the singularities are hidden inside black holes. However, when the spheroids are large enough, there are no apparent horizons. These nonrotating spheroids are strong candidates for naked singularities. Here our simulations suggest that rotation significantly modifies the evolution when it is sufficiently large. Imploding configurations with appreciable rotation ultimately collapse to black holes. However, for small enough angular momentum, our simulations cannot at present distinguish rotating from nonrotating collapse: spindle singularities appear to arise without apparent horizons. Hence it is possible that even spheroids with some angular momentum may form naked singularities.
Additional Information
©1992 American Physical Society. (Received 26 September 1991) We thank A. Abrahams, H. Apostalatos, and K. Thorne for stimulating discussions. This research was supported in part by NSF Grants Nos. AST 90-15451 and PHY 90-07834 and NASA Grant No. NAGW-2364 at Cornell University. Computations were performed on the Cornell National Supercomputer Facility.Attached Files
Published - PhysRevD.45.2006.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 86871
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20180606-164006165
- AST 90-15451
- NSF
- PHY 90-07834
- NSF
- NAGW-2364
- NASA
- Created
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2018-06-07Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-15Created from EPrint's last_modified field