Cosmic Censorship Upheld in Spheroidal Collapse of Collisionless Matter

William E. East
Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 231103 – Published 14 June 2019
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Abstract

We study the collapse of spheroidal configurations of collisionless particles in full general relativity. This setup was originally considered by Shapiro and Teukolsky, where it was found that prolate configurations with a sufficiently large semimajor axis gave rise to diverging curvature, but no apparent horizon. This was taken as evidence for the formation of a naked singularity, in violation of cosmic censorship. We revisit such configurations using different coordinates and slicing, and considering a range of values for the semimajor axis and eccentricity of the initial matter distribution, and find that the final state in all cases studied is a black hole plus gravitational radiation. Though initially distorted, the proper circumferences of the apparent horizons that are found do not significantly exceed the hoop conjecture bound. Configurations with a larger semimajor axis can produce strong gravitational radiation, with luminosities up to PGW2×103c5/G.

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  • Received 21 January 2019
  • Revised 17 May 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.231103

© 2019 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Gravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

Authors & Affiliations

William E. East

  • Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 2Y5, Canada

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Issue

Vol. 122, Iss. 23 — 14 June 2019

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