Critical phenomena in gravitational collapse - Living Reviews

Abstract

As first discovered by Choptuik, the black hole threshold in the space of initial data for general relativity shows both surprising structure and surprising simplicity. Universality, power-law scaling of the black hole mass, and scale echoing have given rise to the term ``critical phenomena''. They are explained by the existence of exact solutions which are attractors within the black hole threshold, that is, attractors of codimension one in phase space, and which are typically self-similar. This review gives an introduction to the phenomena, tries to summarize the essential features of what is happening, and then presents extensions and applications of this basic scenario. Critical phenomena are of interest particularly for creating surprising structure from simple equations, and for the light they throw on cosmic censorship and the generic dynamics of general relativity.

55 pages, published as Living Reviews 1999-4

References in corpus (4)

• New Critical Behavior in Einstein-Yang-Mills Collapse
• Continuous Self-Similarity Breaking in Critical Collapse
• Critical Phenomena Inside Global Monopoles
• Remark on formation of colored black holes via fine tuning

Cited by in corpus (44)

• The 1965 Penrose singularity theorem
• Numerical Approaches to Spacetime Singularities
• The Cotton tensor in Riemannian spacetimes
• Gravitational collapse in 2+1 dimensional AdS spacetime
• Scalar Collapse in AdS
• Theorems on existence and global dynamics for the Einstein equations
• Characteristic Evolution and Matching
• Critical formation of trapped surfaces in the collision of gravitational shock waves
• Critical Collapse of Cylindrically Symmetric Scalar Field in Four-Dimensional Einstein's Theory of Gravity
• A numerical investigation of the stability of steady states and critical phenomena for the spherically symmetric Einstein-Vlasov system
• Critical Formation of Trapped Surfaces in the Collision of Non-expanding Gravitational Shock Waves in de Sitter Space-Time
• Primordial black holes from metric preheating: mass fraction in the excursion-set approach
• Is AdS stable?
• Collapse of a Scalar Field in 2+1 Gravity
• Adaptive Mesh Refinement for Coupled Elliptic-Hyperbolic Systems
• On the use of the Kodama vector field in spherically symmetric dynamical problems
• Exact Black Hole Formation in Asymptotically (A)dS and Flat Spacetimes
• New Features of Gravitational Collapse in Anti-de Sitter Spacetimes
• Self-similar scalar field collapse
• Critical gravitational collapse: towards a holographic understanding of the Regge region
• The formation of black holes in spherically symmetric gravitational collapse
• Exact black hole formation in three dimensions
• Self-similarity in Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theories and critical collapse
• Scalar field collapse in a conformally flat spacetime
• Dynamic C-metrics in (Gauged) Supergravities
• The affine-null formulation of the gravitational equations: spherical case
• Formation and decay of Einstein-Yang-Mills black holes
• Gravitational collapse of massless scalar field in $f(R)$ gravity
• The 3-dimensional Einstein-Klein-Gordon system in characteristic numerical relativity
• Critical Phenomena in Non-spherically Symmetric Scalar Bubble Collapse
• Arithmetical Chaos and Quantum Cosmology
• On the relation between mathematical and numerical relativity
• Semiclassical S-matrix for black holes
• Electromagnetic effect on anisotropic scalar field collapse in higher curvature gravity
• Gravitational Collapse of Perfect Fluid in N-Dimensional Spherically Symmetric Spacetimes
• Critical spacetime crystals in continuous dimensions
• Black Hole Critical Phenomena Without Black Holes
• Numerical Relativity with Arbitrary Precision Arithmetic: Applications to Gravitational Collapse
• Power-laws from critical gravitational collapse: The mass distribution of subsolar objects
• Homothety and Quasi Self Similarity in Asymptotically Flat and AdS Spacetimes
• Universality of the subsolar mass distribution from critical gravitational collapse
• How to "Censor" a Black Hole Singularity and Beyond
• Gravitational collapse and the formation of black holes for the spherically symmetric Einstein-Vlasov system
• Scalar field collapse with negative cosmological constant