1+1 Numerical Relativity: The Gravitational Collapse of a Massless Scalar Field

Abstract

This paper numerically solves the Einstein’s field equations in the 1+1D formalism for a spherically symmetric massless scalar field with a Gaussian configuration. The initial amplitude of the scalar field is varied to find that with an initial value of φ0 = 0.001 no collapse occurs, while for the case of φ0 = 0.002 the field collapses into a black hole.