Gravitational collapse of baryonic and dark matter

Abstract

A massive star undergoes a continual gravitational collapse when the pressures inside the collapsing star become insufficient to balance the pull of gravity. The Physics of gravitational collapse of stars is well studied. Using general relativistic techniques, one can show that the final fate of such a catastrophic collapse can be a black hole or a naked singularity, depending on the initial conditions of gravitational collapse. While stars are made of baryonic matter whose collapse is well studied, there is good indirect evidence that another type of matter, known as dark matter, plays an important role in the formation of large-scale structures in the universe, such as galaxies. It is estimated that some 85% of the total matter in the universe is dark matter. Since the particle constituent of dark matter is not known yet, the gravitational collapse of dark matter is less explored. Here, we consider first some basic properties of baryonic matter and dark matter collapse. Then, we discuss the final fate of gravitational collapse for different types of matter fields and the nature of the singularity which can be formed as an endstate of gravitational collapse. We then present a general relativistic technique to form equilibrium configurations, and argue that this can be thought of as a general relativistic analog of the standard virialization process. We suggest a modification, where the top-hat collapse model of primordial dark-matter halo formation is modified using the general relativistic technique of equilibrium. We also explain why this type of collapse process is more likely to happen in the dark-matter fields.