Critical phenomena in the gravitational collapse of electromagnetic waves
Sep 2, 20195 pages
Published in:
- Phys.Rev.Lett. 123 (2019) 17, 171103
- Published: Oct 26, 2019
e-Print:
- 1909.00850 [gr-qc]
View in:
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Abstract: (APS)
We numerically investigate the threshold of black-hole formation in the gravitational collapse of electromagnetic waves in axisymmetry. We find approximate power-law scaling ρmax∼(η*-η)-2γ of the maximum density in the time evolution of near-subcritical data with γ≃0.145, where η is the amplitude of the initial data. We directly observe approximate discrete self-similarity in near-critical time evolutions with a log-scale echoing period of Δ≃0.55. The critical solution is approximately the same for two families of initial data, providing some evidence of universality. Neither the discrete self-similarity nor the universality, however, are exact. We speculate that the absence of an exactly discrete self-similarity might be caused by the interplay of electromagnetic and gravitational wave degrees of freedom, or by the presence of higher-order angular multipoles, or both, and discuss implications of our findings for the critical collapse of vacuum gravitational waves.Note:
- 5 pages, 3 figures; version accepted for publication in PRL
- Gravitation and Astrophysics
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Figures(4)
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