Abstract
In this paper we extend the analysis of gravitational collapse of spherically symmetric generalized Vaidya spacetimes to higher dimensions, in the context of the cosmic censorship conjecture. We present the sufficient conditions on the generalized Vaidya mass function that will generate a locally naked singular end state. Our analysis here generalizes all the earlier works on collapsing higher dimensional generalized Vaidya spacetimes. With specific examples, we show the existence of classes of mass functions that lead to a naked singularity in four dimensions, which gets covered on transition to higher dimensions. Hence for these classes of mass function cosmic censorship gets restored in higher dimensions and the transition to higher dimensions restricts the set of initial data that results in a naked singularity.
- Received 30 March 2015
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.92.024041
© 2015 American Physical Society