Visibility of a spacetime singularity

Abstract

We investigate here the causal structure of spacetime in the vicinity of a spacetime singularity. The particle and energy emission from such ultradense regions forming in gravitational collapse of a massive matter cloud is governed by the nature of nonspacelike paths near the same. These trajectories are examined to show that if a null geodesic comes out from the singularity, then there exist families of future-directed nonspacelike curves which also necessarily escape from the same. The existence of such families is crucial to the physical visibility of the singularity. We do not assume any underlying symmetries for the spacetime, and earlier considerations on the nature of causal trajectories emerging from a naked singularity are generalized and clarified.