Scalar field collapse and cosmic censorship

TL;DR

This paper investigates the final outcomes of scalar field gravitational collapse, demonstrating that initial conditions can lead to either black holes or naked singularities, thus providing insights into the cosmic censorship conjecture.

Contribution

It provides explicit dynamical solutions near FLRW collapse and numerically explores the initial data space, revealing the conditions leading to different collapse end-states.

Findings

Initial data space is evenly divided between black hole and naked singularity outcomes.

Numerical integration of Einstein equations near the collapse center.

Discussion on the implications for cosmic censorship conjecture.

Abstract

We analyze here the final fate of complete gravitational collapse of a massless scalar field within general relativity. A class of dynamical solutions with initial data close to the Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) collapse model is explicitly given and the Einstein equations are integrated numerically in a neighborhood of the center. We show that the initial data space is evenly divided between the dynamical evolutions that terminate in a black hole final state and those that produce a locally naked singularity. We comment on the genericity aspects of the collapse end-states and the connection to cosmic censorship conjecture is pointed out.