Gravitational collapse in asymptotically anti–de Sitter or de Sitter backgrounds

Abstract

We study here the gravitational collapse of a matter cloud with a nonvanishing tangential pressure in the presence of a nonzero cosmological term $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$. It is investigated how $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ modifies the dynamics of the collapsing cloud and whether it affects the cosmic censorship. Conditions for bounce and singularity formation are derived. It is seen that when the tangential pressure vanishes, the bounce and singularity conditions reduce to the dust case studied earlier. The collapsing interior is matched to an exterior which is asymptotically de Sitter or anti--de Sitter, depending on the sign of the cosmological constant. The junction conditions for matching the cloud to the exterior are specified. The effect of $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ on apparent horizons is studied in some detail and the nature of central singularity is analyzed. The visibility of singularity and implications for the cosmic censorship conjecture are discussed. It is shown that for a nonvanishing cosmological constant, both black hole and naked singularities do form as collapse end states in spacetimes which are asymptotically de Sitter or anti--de Sitter.