Central singularity in spherical collapse

Abstract

The gravitational strength of the central singularity in spherically symmetric space-times is investigated. Necessary conditions for the singularity to be gravitationally weak are derived and it is shown that these are violated in a wide variety of circumstances. These conditions allow conclusions to be drawn about the nature of the singularity without having to integrate the geodesic equations. In particular, any geodesic with a nonzero amount of angular momentum that impinges on the singularity terminates in a strong curvature singularity.