Naked Singularity Could Exist In Three-Dimensional Space

First Posted: May 23, 2017 04:56 AM EDT

Physicists have long been baffled on the existence of naked singularity as thought to have existed at the center of black holes and hidden in view in general relativity. Recently, the scientists have predicted that naked singularity could exist in highly curved three-dimensional space.

The findings of the discovery were published in the journal Physical Review Letters. The study was led by scientists from the University of Cambridge. They used computer simulations to foresee the existence of the naked singularity.

A naked singularity is defined as a gravitational singularity without an event horizon. In general relativity, this singularity is found in the black hole, in which the singularity is bounded by the event horizon. The gravitational force of the singularity is powerful that even light cannot escape. Its existence is significant because with its existence, the collapse of an object to infinite density could be observed.

In the study, the scientists predict the presence of naked singularities that exists outside an event horizon. The predictions indicate that the naked singularity could form a special kind of curved surface referred to as anti-de Sitter space. This is a universe or space with a unique "saddle" shape that has a very different structure to flat space, according to

Toby Crisford from Cambridge's Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and one of the authors of the study likened the anti-de Sitter space into a spacetime in a box. He explained that at the boundary, the walls of the box, they have the freedom to specify what the various fields are doing and they use this freedom to add energy to the system and finally force the shaping of a singularity.

Meanwhile, Jorge Santos, one of the authors from Cambridge's Department as well, also explained that the naked singularity they see is likely to diminish if they were to include charged particles in their simulation, which they are now examining. He further said that if true, it could mean a connection between the weak gravity conjecture and the cosmic censorship conjecture, which states that any consistent theory of quantum gravity must have enough charged particles. He added that in anti-de Sitter space, the cosmic censorship conjecture could be saved by the weak gravity conjecture.

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