A point mass and continuous collapse to a point mass in general relativity

• Published in: General relativity and gravitation 2018, Vol.50 (1), p.1-25, Article 6
• Main Author: Petrov, Alexander N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Astronomy; Astrophysics and Cosmology; Black holes; Classical and Quantum Gravitation; Collapse; Differential Geometry; Gravitation; Gravitational collapse; Gravity; Mathematical and Computational Physics; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Quantum Physics; Relativity; Relativity Theory; Research Article; Singularities; Theoretical; Theory of relativity
• ISSN: 0001-7701; 1572-9532
• DOI: 10.1007/s10714-017-2326-4

An original way of presentation of the Schwarzschild black hole in the form of a point-like mass with making the use of the Dirac δ -function, including a description of a continuous collapse to such a point mass, is given. A maximally generalized description restricted by physically reasonable requirements is developed. A so-called field-theoretical formulation of general relativity, being equivalent to the standard geometrical presentation of general relativity, is used. All of the dynamical fields, including the gravitational field, are considered as propagating in a background (curved or flat) spacetime. Namely these properties allow us to present a non-contradictive picture of the point mass description. The results can be useful for studying the structure of the black hole true singularities and could be developed for practical calculations in models with black holes.