Darryl Leiter

Does the principle of equivalence prevent trapped surfaces from forming in the general relativistic collapse process?

The Strong Principle of Equivalence in General Relativity requires that Special Relativity must hold locally for all freely falling time-like observers. This interpretation of the POE, which implies that time-like world lines must always remain time-like, requires that the proper time along the time-like world lines of matter must always be non-zero and positive definite in all of spacetime. Consistency requires that we extend this interpretation of the POE to the more general case of non-freely falling observers whose non-geodesic time-like world lines involves the presence of both gravitational and non-gravitational forces. Hence the POE implies that the non-geodesic time-like matter world lines derived from the covariant conservation of the energy momentum tensor must also have the property that they can be extended to any value of their affine proper time parameter in all of spacetime. In General Relativity this implies that the POE imposes dynamic constraints on the structure of the energy momentum transport properties described by the energy momentum tensor which occurs on the right hand side of the Einstein Equation. In this context we find that the POE requires that the energy momentum tensor, describing collapsing compact objects containing physical plasma surrounded by a time-like physical surface, must always contain intrinsic magnetic fields (1) within the collapsing plasma which cause it to eventually radiate photons at the Eddington limit in a manner which prevents trapped surfaces from being formed in the general relativistic collapse process (2).

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