Quasi-spherical gravitational collapse in any dimension (Q1424857)

This work studies gravitational collapse in \((n+2)\)-dimensional Szekeres space-times (possessing no Killing vectors) for \(n\geq 2\). The nature of the central shell-focusing singularity is explored via a comparison of its time of formation with the time of formation of a trapped surface. The outcome of this analysis is that central shell-focusing singularities may be locally naked in higher dimensions but that their behavior is sensitive to the choice of initial data.