On the genericity of spacetime singularities

PANKAJ S JOSHI

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road,

Mumbai 400 005, India

E-mail: psj@tifr.res.in

Abstract. We consider here the genericity aspects of spacetime

singularities that occur in cosmology and in gravitational collapse.

The singularity theorems (that predict the occurrence of

singularities in general relativity) allow the singularities of

gravitational collapse to be either visible to external observers or

covered by an event horizon of gravity. It is shown that the visible

singularities that develop as final states of spherical collapse are

generic. Some consequences of this fact are discussed.

Keywords. Spacetime singularities; gravitational collapse; cosmology.

PACS Nos 04.20.Dw; 04.70.-s; 04.70.Bw