Universality and scaling in gravitational collapse of a massless scalar field

Abstract

I summarize results from a numerical study of spherically symmetric collapse of a massless scalar field. I consider families of solutions, scrS[p], with the property that a critical parameter value, ${\mathit{p}}^{\mathrm{*}}$, separates solutions containing black holes from those which do not. I present evidence in support of conjectures that (1) the strong-field evolution in the p\ensuremath{\rightarrow}${\mathit{p}}^{\mathrm{*}}$ limit is universal and generates structure on arbitrarily small spatiotemporal scales and (2) the masses of black holes which form satisfy a power law ${\mathit{M}}_{\mathrm{BH}}$\ensuremath{\propto}\ensuremath{\Vert}p-${\mathit{p}}^{\mathrm{*}}$${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Vert}}}^{\ensuremath{\gamma}}$, where \ensuremath{\gamma}\ensuremath{\approxeq}0.37 is a universal exponent.