Critical Collapse in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet Gravity in Five and Six Dimensions

TL;DR

This paper investigates how Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity affects critical gravitational collapse in five and six dimensions, revealing universal but dimension-dependent behaviors near black hole formation thresholds.

Contribution

It provides the first numerical analysis of scalar collapse in higher-dimensional EGB gravity, highlighting dimension-specific critical phenomena and the influence of the GB scale.

Findings

In five dimensions, a minimum black hole radius suggests a first order transition.

In six dimensions, no radius gap is observed, but critical exponents and echoing periods change.

Behavior near the threshold is universal but differs between five and six dimensions.

Abstract

Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity (EGB) provides a natural higher dimensional and higher order curvature generalization of Einstein gravity. It contains a new, presumably microscopic, length scale that should affect short distance properties of the dynamics, such as Choptuik scaling. We present the results of a numerical analysis in generalized flat slice co-ordinates of self-gravitating massless scalar spherical collapse in five and six dimensional EGB gravity near the threshold of black hole formation. Remarkably, the behaviour is universal (i.e. independent of initial data) but qualitatively different in five and six dimensions. In five dimensions there is a minimum horizon radius, suggestive of a first order transition between black hole and dispersive initial data. In six dimensions no radius gap is evident. Instead, below the GB scale there is a change in the critical exponent and echoing period.