MSc thesis: Trapped surfaces in 2+1 dimensions

by Emma Jakobsson

Monday 20 Jun 2011, 13:15 → 14:00 Europe/Stockholm

Á5:1069

Trapped surfaces are the precursors of singularities in gravitational collapse. In numerical simulations it has been found that trapped surfaces sometimes make sudden "jumps" from one location to another. When a lump of matter hits a trapped surface it is believed that the trapped surface moves outwards. This behaviour is difficult to describe analytically in a 3+1-dimensional spacetime because gravitational radiation is emitted. The problem is more easily tackled in 2+1 dimensions. By considering a toy model of a black hole in 2+1-dimensional anti-de Sitter space, and letting a point particle fall into the black hole, an exact description of this peculiar behaviour of the trapped surfaces can be found.