The established concept of black hole emerged from several results founded on Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. In this article, the relationship between these results is analyzed, and it is pointed out how, in spite of being individually correct, the sum of all them do not actually determine the existence of black holes. Some logical incompatibilities in the standard Black Hole model are put into evidence, and the alternative scheme of the Never-Stationary Gravitational Collapse is defended. To illustrate the essence of the new paradigm, a simple but conceptually complete toy model is worked out and a qualitatively suitable metric for Never-Stationary Gravitational Collapse is presented.
We investigate the stationary end-state obtained by evolving a collapsing spherical star with the gauges routinely adopted to study puncture black holes. We compare the end-state of the collapse with the trumpet solution found in the evolution of a single wormhole slice and show that the two solutions closely agree. We demonstrate that the agreement is caused by the use of the Gamma-driver shift condition, which allows the matter to fall inwards into a region of spacetime that is not resolved by the numerical grid, and which simultaneously finds the stationary coordinates of the trumpet outsid…
We investigate the dynamical nature of the collapse process of a spherically symmetric star in quasi-static hydrodynamical equilibrium. The star collapses from an initial static configuration by dissipating energy in the form of a radial heat flux. The dissipation ensures that the singularity is never formed and the stellar mass completely evaporates over a finite time.
We numerically investigate the dynamics near black hole formation of solutions to the Einstein--Vlasov system in axisymmetry. Our results are obtained using a particle-in-cell and finite difference code based on the $(2+1)+1$ formulation of the Einstein field equations in axisymmetry. Solutions are launched from non-stationary initial data and exhibit type I critical behaviour. In particular, we find lifetime scaling in solutions containing black holes, and support that the critical solutions are stationary. Our results contain examples of solutions that form black holes, perform damped oscill…
The generalized second law of black hole thermodynamics was proved by Frolov and Page for a quasi-stationary eternal black hole. However, realistic black holes arise from a gravitational collapse, and in this case their proof does not hold. In this paper we prove the generalized second law for a quasi-stationary black hole which arises from a gravitational collapse.
We study gravitational collapse of a spherically symmetric scalar field in Einstein-aether theory (general relativity coupled to a dynamical unit timelike vector field). The initial value formulation is developed, and numerical simulations are performed. The collapse produces regular, stationary black holes, as long as the aether coupling constants are not too large. For larger couplings a finite area singularity occurs. These results are shown to be consistent with the stationary solutions found previously.
We studied the gravitational collapse of a shell of dust in shape dynamics. We found out static and oscillatory solutions. In the large momentum limit we found out that the shell never reaches the singularity when the momentum of the shell is much larger than the mass of the shell in magnitude. The shell does not reach to the origin in a finite amount of time however when the momentum of the shell becomes comparable to minus the mass of shell, the large momentum approximation breaks down. Therefore more detailed future works hopefully may be able to answer the question of singularity formation…
The Lovelock gravity extends the theory of general relativity to higher dimensions in such a way that the field equations remain of second order. The theory has many constant coefficients with no a priori meaning. Nevertheless it is possible to reduce them to two, the cosmological constant and Newton's constant. In this process one separates theories in even dimensions from theories in odd dimensions. In a previous work gravitational collapse in even dimensions was analysed. In this work attention is given to odd dimensions. It is found that black holes also emerge as the final state of gravit…
A new model is proposed to a collapsing star consisting of an initial inhomogeneous energy density and anisotropic pressure fluid with shear, radial heat flow and outgoing radiation. In previous papers one of us has always assumed an initial star with homogeneous energy density. The aim of this work is to generalize the previous models by introducing an initial inhomogeneous energy density and compare it to the initial homogeneous energy density collapse model. We will show the differences between these models in the evolution of all physical quantities that characterizes the gravitational col…
In this paper, we consider the gravitational collapse of generalized Vaidya space-time when the matter satisfies the equation of the state either $P=0$ or $P=-αρ$, where $0 < α< 1$. We show that in the case when type I of matter field is dust, then the apparent horizon will never appear, but there is now a family of null radial future-directed geodesics which terminated at the central singularity in the past. Also, we show that in the case of negative pressure, the result of the gravitational collapse might be the naked singularity and the apparent horizon appears and in very short time disapp…
A new model is proposed to a collapsing star consisting of an anisotropic fluid with bulk viscosity, radial heat flow and outgoing radiation. In a previous paper one of us has introduced a function time dependent into the $g_{rr}$, besides the time dependent metric functions $g_{θθ}$ and $g_{ϕϕ}$. The aim of this work is to generalize this previous model by introducing bulk viscosity and compare it to the non-viscous collapse. The behavior of the density, pressure, mass, luminosity and the effective adiabatic index is analyzed. Our work is also compared to the case of a collapsing fluid with b…
The invariant four-volume $\mathcal{V}$ of a complete black hole (the volume of the spacetime at and interior to the horizon) diverges. However, if one considers the black hole set up by the gravitational collapse of an object, and integrates only a finite time to the future of the collapse, the resultant volume is well defined and finite. In this paper we examine non-degenerate stationary black holes (and cosmological horizons) and find that $\mathcal{V}_{s} \varpropto \ln(λ)$ where $s$ is any shell that terminates on the horizon, $λ$ is the affine generator of the horizon and the constant of…
In case of spherical symmetry, the assumptions of finite-time formation of a trapped region and regularity of its boundary --- the apparent horizon --- are sufficient to identify the form of the metric and energy-momentum tensor in its vicinity. By comparison with the known results for quasistatic evaporation of black holes, we complete the identification of their parameters. Consistency of the Einstein equations allows only two possible types of higher-order terms in the energy-momentum tensor. By using its local conservation, we provide a method of calculation of the higher-order terms, expl…
It is known now that a typical gravitational collapse in general relativity, evolving from regular initial data and under physically reasonable conditions would end in either a black hole or a naked singularity final state. An important question that needs to be answered in this connection is, whether the analogues of the laws of thermodynamics, as formulated for relativistic horizons are respected by the dynamical spacetimes for collapse that end in the formation of a naked singularity. We investigate here the thermodynamical behaviour of the dynamical horizons that form in spherically symmet…
In this paper, we first generalize the definition of stationary universal horizons to dynamical ones, and then show that (dynamical) universal horizons can be formed from realistic gravitational collapse. This is done by constructing analytical models of a collapsing spherically symmetric star with finite thickness in Einstein-aether theory.
We carry out numerical simulations of the gravitational collapse of a rotating perfect fluid with the ultrarelativistic equation of state $P=κρ$, in axisymmetry in $2+1$ spacetime dimensions with $Λ<0$. We show that for $κ\lesssim 0.42$, the critical phenomena are type I and the critical solution is stationary. The picture for $κ\gtrsim 0.43$ is more delicate: for small angular momenta, we find type II phenomena and the critical solution is quasistationary, contracting adiabatically. The spin-to-mass ratio of the critical solution increases as it contracts, and hence so does that of the black …
We analyze the gravitational dynamics of a classical scalar field coupled to gravity in asymptotically AdS spacetime, which leads to black hole formation on the shortest nonlinear time scale for some initial conditions. We show that the observed collapse cannot be described by the well-known process of a random-phase cascade in the theory of weak turbulence. This implies that the dynamics on this time scale is highly sensitive to the phases of modes. We explore the alternative possibility of a coherent phase cascade and analytically find stationary solutions with completely coherent phases and…
One of the major obstacles to testing alternative theories of gravity with gravitational-wave data from merging binaries of compact objects is the formulation of their field equations, which is often mathematically ill-suited for time evolutions. A possible way to address these delicate shortcomings is the fixing-the-equations approach, which was developed to control the behaviour of the high-frequency modes of the solutions and the potentially significant flow towards ultra-violet modes. This is particularly worrisome in gravitational collapse, where even black hole formation might be insuffi…
We establish the existence of stationary clouds of massive test scalar fields around BTZ black holes. These clouds are zero-modes of the superradiant instability and are possible when Robin boundary conditions (RBCs) are considered at the AdS boundary. These boundary conditions are the most general ones that ensure the AdS space is an isolated system, and include, as a particular case, the commonly considered Dirichlet or Neumann-type boundary conditions (DBCs or NBCs). We obtain an explicit, closed form, resonance condition, relating the RBCs that allow the existence of normalizable (and regu…
In numerical relativity, spacetimes involving compact strongly gravitating objects are constructed as numerical solutions of Einstein's equations. Success of such a process strongly depends on the availability of appropriate coordinates, which are typically constructed dynamically. A very robust coordinate choice is a so-called moving puncture gauge, commonly used for numerical simulations of black hole spacetimes. Nevertheless it is known to fail for evolving near-critical Brill wave data. We construct a new `quasi-maximal' slicing condition and demonstrate that it exhibits better behavior fo…
We discuss a proposal on how gravitational collapse of a NEC (Null Energy Condition) violating spherically symmetric fluid distribution can avoid the formation of a zero proper volume singularity and eventually lead to a Lorentzian wormhole geometry. Our idea is illustrated using a time-evolving wormhole spacetime in which, we show how a collapsing sphere may never reach a zero proper volume end-state. The nature of geodesic congruences in such spacetimes is considered and analyzed. Our construction is inspired from a recently proposed static wormhole geometry, the multi-parameter Simpson-Viss…
We model the gravitational collapse of heavy massive shells including its main quantum corrections. Among these corrections, quantum improvements coming from Quantum Einstein Gravity are taken into account, which provides us with an effective quantum spacetime. Likewise, we consider dynamical Hawking radiation by modeling its back-reaction once the horizons have been generated. Our results point towards a picture of gravitational collapse in which the collapsing shell reaches a minimum non-zero radius (whose value depends on the shell initial conditions) with its mass only slightly reduced. Th…
"The self-induced collapse hypothesis" was introduced by D. Sudarsky and collaborators to explain the origin of cosmic structure from a perfect isotropic and homogeneous universe during the inflationary regime. In this paper, we calculate the power spectrum for the tensor modes, within the semiclassical gravity approximation, with the additional hypothesis of a generic self-induced collapse of the inflaton's wave function; we also compute an estimate for the tensor-to-scalar ratio. Based on this calculation, we show that the considered proposal exhibits a strong suppression of the tensor modes…
A new mechanism for causing naked singularities is found in an effective superstring theory. We investigate the gravitational collapse in a spherically symmetric Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton system in the presence of a pure cosmological constant "potential", where the system has no static black hole solution. We show that once gravitational collapse occurs in the system, naked singularities necessarily appear in the sense that the field equations break down in the domain of outer communications. This suggests that in generalized theories of gravity, the non-minimally coupled fields generically cau…
We analyse the evolution of the entanglement of a non-trivial initial quantum field state (which, for simplicity, has been taken to be a bipartite state made out of vacuum and the first excited state) when it undergoes a gravitational collapse. We carry out this analysis by generalising the tools developed to study entanglement behaviour in stationary scenarios and making them suitable to deal with dynamical spacetimes. We also discuss what kind of problems can be tackled using the formalism spelled out here as well as single out future avenues of research.
We perform axisymmetric simulations of the magnetorotational collapse of very massive stars in full general relativity. Our simulations are applicable to the collapse of supermassive stars (M > 10^3M_sun) and to very massive Pop III stars. We model our initial configurations by n=3 polytropes. The ratio of magnetic to rotational kinetic energy in these configurations is chosen to be small (1% and 10%). We find that such magnetic fields do not affect the initial collapse significantly. The core collapses to a black hole, after which black hole excision is employed to continue the evolution long…
We study the homogeneous gravitational collapse of a spherical cloud of matter in a super-renormalizable and asymptotically free theory of gravity. We find a picture that differs substantially from the classical scenario. The central singularity appearing in classical general relativity is replaced by a bounce, after which the cloud re-expands indefinitely. We argue that a black hole, strictly speaking, never forms. The collapse only generates a temporary trapped surface, which can be interpreted as a black hole when the observational timescale is much shorter than the one of the collapse. How…
Spherically gravitational collapse towards a black hole with non-zero tangential pressure is studied. Exact solutions corresponding to different equations of state are given. We find that when taking the tangential pressure into account, the exact solutions have three qualitatively different endings. For positive tangential pressure, the shell around a black hole may eventually collapse onto the black hole, or expand to infinity, or have a static but unstable solution, depending on the combination of black hole mass, mass of the shell and the pressure parameter. For vanishing or negative press…
The Kerr metric models the final classical black hole state after gravitational collapse of matter and radiation. Any stationary metric which is close to the Kerr metric has been proven to be diffeomorphic to it. Now, finite supertranslation diffeomorphisms are symmetries which map solutions to inequivalent solutions as such diffeomorphisms generate conserved superrotation charges. The final state of gravitational collapse is therefore parameterized by its mass, angular momentum and supertranslation field, signaled by its conserved superrotation charges. In this paper, we first derive the angl…
We consider general relativistic homogeneous gravitational collapses for dust and radiation. We show that replacing the density profile with an effective density justified by some quantum gravity framework leads to the avoidance of the final singularity. The effective density acts on the collapsing cloud by introducing an isotropic pressure, which is negligible at the beginning of the collapse and becomes negative and dominant in the strong field regime. Event horizons never form and therefore the outcome of the collapse is not a black hole, in the sense that there are no regions causally disc…
We study the dynamical evolution of perturbations in the gravitational field of a collapsing fluid star. Specifically, we consider the initial value problem for a massless scalar field in a spacetime similar to the Oppenheimer-Snyder collapse model, and numerically evolve in time the relevant wave equation. Our main objective is to examine whether the phenomenon of parametric amplification, known to be responsible for the strong amplification of primordial perturbations in the expanding Universe, can efficiently operate during gravitational collapse. Although the time-varying gravitational fie…
Following our result that for the final state of continued spherical gravitational collapse, the gravitational mass of the fluid, $M_f\to 0$, we show that for a physical fluid the eventual value of $2GM_f/R_f\to 1$ rather than $2GM_f/R_f <1$, indicating approach to a zero-mass black hole. We also indicate that as the final state would be approached, the curvature components tend to blow up, and the proper radial distance $l$ and the proper time $τ\to \infty$. This indicates that actually the singularity is never attained for the collapse of an isolated body. We also identify that, the final st…
A key result in the proof of black hole uniqueness in 4-dimensions is that a stationary black hole that is ``rotating''--i.e., is such that the stationary Killing field is not everywhere normal to the horizon--must be axisymmetric. The proof of this result in 4-dimensions relies on the fact that the orbits of the stationary Killing field on the horizon have the property that they must return to the same null geodesic generator of the horizon after a certain period, $P$. This latter property follows, in turn, from the fact that the cross-sections of the horizon are two-dimensional spheres. Howe…
We investigate both the classical and quantum gravitational collapse of a charged, non-rotating $n$-dimensional BTZ black hole in AdS space. This is done by first deriving the conserved mass of a "spherically" symmetric domain wall, which is then taken as the classical Hamiltonian of the domain wall. In the classical picture, we show that, as far as the asymptotic observer is concerned, the details of the collapse depend on the amount of charge present in the domain wall. In the both the extremal and non-extremal cases, the collapse takes an infinite amount of observer time to complete. Howeve…
Starting from the Oppenheimer-Snyder model, we know how in classical general relativity the gravitational collapse of matter form a black hole with a central spacetime singularity. It is widely believed that the singularity must be removed by quantum gravity effects. Some static quantum-inspired singularity-free black hole solutions have been proposed in the literature, but when one considers simple examples of gravitational collapse the classical singularity is replaced by a bounce, after which the collapsing matter expands for ever. We may expect 3 possible explanations: $i)$ the static regu…
In a certain class of scalar-Gauss-Bonnet gravity, the black holes and the neutron stars can undergo spontaneous scalarization -- a strong gravity phase transition triggered by a tachyonic instability due to the nonminimal coupling between the scalar field and the spacetime curvature. Studies of this phenomenon have, so far, been restricted mainly to the study of the tachyonic instability and stationary scalarized black holes and neutron stars. To date, no realistic physical mechanism for the formation of isolated scalarized black holes and neutron stars has been proposed. We study, for the fi…
We study a thermodynamic potential during the classical gravitational collapse of a 4D (3+1) massless scalar field to a Schwarzschild black hole in isotropic coordinates. We track numerically the function $F(t)=-dI/dt=-L$, where $I$ is the total action of matter plus gravitation, $L$ the total Lagrangian and $t$ is the time measured by a stationary clock at infinity. At late stages in the collapse, this function can be identified with the free energy $F=E-TS$ of the black hole where $E$ is the ADM mass, $T$ the Hawking temperature and $S$ the entropy. From standard black hole thermodynamics, t…
We investigate the formation dynamics of sonic horizons in a Bose gas confined in a (quasi) one-dimensional trap. This system is one of the most promising realizations of the analogue gravity paradigm and has already been successfully studied experimentally. Taking advantage of the exact solution of the one-dimensional, hard-core, Bose model (Tonks-Girardeau gas) we show that, by switching on a step potential, either a sonic (black-hole-like) horizon or a black/white hole pair may form, according to the initial velocity of the fluid. Our simulations never suggest the formation of an isolated w…
While it is widely believed that the gravitational collapse of a sufficiently large mass will lead to a density singularity and an event horizon, we propose that this never happens when quantum effects are taken into account. In particular, we propose that when the conditions become ripe for a trapped surface to form, a quantum critical surface sweeps over the collapsing body, transforming the nucleons in the collapsing matter into a lepton/photon gas together with a positive vacuum energy. This will happen regardless of the matter density at the time a trapped surface starts to form, and as a…
Oppenheimer and Snyder found in 1939 that gravitational collapse in vacuum produces a "frozen star", i.e., the collapsing matter only asymptotically approaches the gravitational radius (event horizon) of the mass, but never crosses it within a finite time for an external observer. Based upon our recent publication on the problem of gravitational collapse in the physical universe for an external observer, the following results are reported here: (1) Matter can indeed fall across the event horizon within a finite time and thus BHs, rather than "frozen stars", are formed in gravitational collapse…
