On trapped surface formation in gravitational collapse

Abstract

A class of perfect fluid collapse models is constructed to examine the final fate of a continual gravitational collapse. While the pressure could be negative in the interior of the cloud, the weak-energy condition is satisfied. The collapsing star radiates away its matter as the process of gravitational collapse evolves, so as to avoid the formation of trapped surfaces. The collapsing interior is matched to an exterior, which is a generalized Vaidya spacetime, to complete the model. The implications of such a result towards the resolution of the singularity issue and various black hole paradoxes at classical and quantum levels are indicated.