with
a real constant and
f
real. The metric is then homothetic, while the scalar field
shows a trivial kind of ``echoing'' in the complex phase. Later,
they found that this solution has three modes with
[83] and is therefore not the critical solution. On the other hand,
Gundlach [74
] examined complex scalar field perturbations around Choptuik's
real scalar field critical solution and found that only one of
them, purely real, has
, so that the real scalar field critical solution is a critical
solution (up to an overall complex phase) also for the free
complex scalar field. This had been seen already in collapse
calculations [35].
As the symmetry of the critical solution, CSS or DSS, depends
on the matter model, it is interesting to investigate critical
behavior in parameterized families of matter models. Two such
one-parameter families have been investigated. The first one is
the spherical perfect fluid with equation of state
for arbitrary
k
. Maison [98
] constructed the regular CSS solutions and its linear
perturbations for a large number of values of
k
. In each case, he found exactly one growing mode, and was
therefore able to predict the critical exponent. (To my
knowledge, these critical exponents have not yet been verified in
collapse simulations.) As Ori and Piran before [104,
105], he claimed that there are no regular CSS solutions for
k
> 0.88. Recently, Neilsen and Choptuik [100,
101] have found CSS critical solutions for all values of
k
right up to 1, both in collapse simulations and by making a CSS
ansatz. Interesting questions arise because the stiff (
) perfect fluid, limited to irrotational solutions, is
equivalent to the massless scalar field, limited to solutions
with timelike gradient, while the scalar field critical solution
is actually DSS. These are currently being investigated [20].
The second one-parameter family of matter models was suggested by Hirschmann and Eardley [85], who looked for a natural way of introducing a nonlinear self-interaction for the (complex) scalar field without introducing a scale. (We discuss dimensionful coupling constants in the following sections.) They investigated the model described by the action
Note that
is now complex, and the parameter
is real and dimensionless. This is a 2-dimensional sigma model
with a target space metric of constant curvature (namely
), minimally coupled to gravity. Moreover, for
there are (nontrivial) field redefinitions which make this model
equivalent to a real massless scalar field minimally coupled to
Brans-Dicke gravity, with the Brans-Dicke coupling given by
In particular,
(
) corresponds to an axion-dilaton system arising in string
theory [51].
is the free complex scalar field coupled to Einstein gravity.
Hirschmann and Eardley calculated a CSS solution and its
perturbations, and concluded that it is the critical solution for
, but has three unstable modes for
. For
, it acquires even more unstable modes. The positions of the
mode frequencies
in the complex plane vary continuously with
, and these are just values of
where a complex conjugate pair of frequencies crosses the real
axis. The results of Hirschmann and Eardley confirm and subsume
collapse simulation results by Liebling and Choptuik [97] for the scalar-Brans-Dicke system, and collapse and
perturbative results on the axion-dilaton system by Hamadé, Horne
and Stewart [80]. Where the CSS solution fails to be the critical solution, a
DSS solution takes over. In particular, for
, the free complex scalar field, the critical solution is just
the real scalar field DSS solution of Choptuik.
Liebling [95] has found initial data sets that find the CSS solution for
values of
(for example
) where the true critical solution is DSS. The complex scalar
field in these data sets is of the form
times a slowly varying function of
r, for arbitrary
r, while its momentum
is either zero or
. Conversely, data sets that are purely real find the DSS
solution even for values of
where the true critical solution is the CSS solution, for
example for
. These two special families of initial data maximize and
minimize the
U
(1) charge. Small deviations from these data find the
sub-dominant ``critical'' solution for some time, then veer off
and find the true critical solution. (Even later, of course, the
critical solution is also abandoned in turn for dispersion or
black hole formation.)
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Critical Phenomena in Gravitational Collapse
Carsten Gundlach http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-1999-4 © Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. ISSN 1433-8351 Problems/Comments to livrev@aei-potsdam.mpg.de |