Cylindrically symmetric models of gravitational collapse to black holes: a short review

TL;DR

This paper reviews cylindrically symmetric gravitational collapse models in General Relativity, focusing on spacetime matching, trapped surfaces, and gravitational wave emission, highlighting key theorems, toy models, and open problems.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive survey of exact cylindrically symmetric collapse models, including new insights into spacetime matching and gravitational energy flux calculations.

Findings

Identified conditions for spacetime matchings in collapse models

Analyzed gravitational energy flux through matching boundaries

Reviewed key theorems guiding collapse scenarios

Abstract

We survey results about exact cylindrically symmetric models of gravitational collapse in General Relativity. We focus on models which result from the matching of two spacetimes having collapsing interiors which develop trapped surfaces and vaccum exteriors containing gravitational waves. We collect some theorems from the literature which help to decide a priori about eventual spacetime matchings. We revise, in more detail, some toy models which include some of the main mathematical and physical issues that arise in this context, and compute the gravitational energy flux through the matching boundary of a particular collapsing region. Along the way, we point out several interesting open problems.