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Proof of the Cosmic Censorship Hypothesis in a Key Special Case
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In the 1960's Roger Penrose and Stephen Hawking proved the singularity
theorems, showing that general relativity reveals the limits of its
own validity. Under general circumstances solutions of the Einstein
equations contain singularities, where the structure of space and time
break down. What remained open was the question whether what happens near
the singularity can effect things far away. If it could then this would
mean a breakdown of predictability in Einstein's theory, a serious flaw.
This led Penrose to make the cosmic censorship hypothesis, which says
that this kind of disaster cannot happen in general relativity. Proving
this is a very difficult mathematical problem and progress has been slow.
A key special case which has been studied intensively for over twenty
years is the class of Gowdy spacetimes. Now Hans Ringström from AEI
has proved the cosmic censorship hypothesis for this class of
spacetimes.
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Further Reading on the Web
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 webteam@aei.mpg.de |
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© 2012, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, Potsdam |
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