Physical nature of the central singularity in spherical collapse

TL;DR

This paper investigates the central singularity in spherical dust collapse, demonstrating it is a strong curvature singularity and that the naked singularity is stable under initial data perturbations.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis showing the stability and strength of the naked singularity in spherical dust collapse, contributing to understanding gravitational collapse outcomes.

Findings

Central singularity is a strong curvature singularity.

Naked singularity remains stable under initial data perturbations.

Gravitational tidal forces diverge powerfully at the singularity.

Abstract

We examine here the nature of the central singularity forming in the spherically symmetric collapse of a dust cloud and it is shown that this is always a strong curvature singularity where gravitational tidal forces diverge powerfully. An important consequence is that the nature of the naked singularity forming in the dust collapse turns out to be stable against the perturbations in the initial data from which the collapse commences.