Inhomogeneous Dust Collapse in 5D Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet Gravity

TL;DR

This paper derives exact solutions for inhomogeneous dust collapse in 5D Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity, revealing that Gauss-Bonnet terms alter singularity structures and challenge key gravitational conjectures.

Contribution

It provides the first exact solutions for dust collapse in 5D Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity, showing how quadratic curvature terms modify singularity properties.

Findings

Gauss-Bonnet terms change causal structure of singularities

Collapse results in a weak, timelike singularity

Counterexamples to cosmic censorship, hoop, and Seifert conjectures

Abstract

We consider a Lemaitre - Tolman - Bondi type space-time in Einstein gravity with the Gauss-Bonnet combination of quadratic curvature terms, and present exact solution in closed form. It turns out that the presence of the coupling constant of the Gauss-Bonnet terms alpha > 0 completely changes the causal structure of the singularities from the analogous general relativistic case. The gravitational collapse of inhomogeneous dust in the five-dimensional Gauss-Bonnet extended Einstein equations leads to formation of a massive, but weak, timelike singularity which is forbidden in general relativity. Interestingly, this is a counterexample to three conjecture viz. cosmic censorship conjecture, hoop conjecture and Seifert's conjecture.