Quantum fate of the Choptuik naked singularity
Abstract
Classical critical collapse provides a dynamical route from smooth initial data to a naked singularity, representing a sharper violation of predictability than ordinary black hole singularities. We argue that this distinction is erased by quantum backreaction. Building on the semiclassical interior analysis, where quantum self-energy of the collapsing matter generates a universal growing mode and a finite mass gap, we study the exterior naked singularity region that determines global visibility in the Einstein-scalar system. We analyze controlled exterior models in both 2+1 and 3+1 dimensions. In the former, smooth matching and physical boundary conditions analytically select a vacuum polarization state, whose backreaction cloaks the classically naked region by a quantum trapped branch. In the latter, numerical horizon tracing shows that near a quantum-shifted threshold the exterior develops finite-mass marginally trapped surfaces rather than a zero-mass naked endpoint. These results suggest a global quantum picture in which the Choptuik naked singularity shares the fate of an ordinary black hole singularity: quantum effects push the putative Cauchy horizon behind a quantum-generated horizon, thereby reducing the loss of predictability to the standard black hole evaporation problem.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{wu2026quantum,
title = {{Quantum fate of the Choptuik naked singularity}},
author = {Chih-Hung Wu},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2606.17135},
eprint = {2606.17135},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.17135},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Quantum fate of the Choptuik naked singularity
AU - Chih-Hung Wu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/31
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2606.17135
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.17135
AB - Classical critical collapse provides a dynamical route from smooth initial data to a naked singularity, representing a sharper violation of predictability than ordinary black hole singularities. We argue that this distinction is erased by quantum backreaction. Building on the semiclassical interior analysis, where quantum self-energy of the collapsing matter generates a universal growing mode and a finite mass gap, we study the exterior naked singularity region that determines global visibility in the Einstein-scalar system. We analyze controlled exterior models in both 2+1 and 3+1 dimensions. In the former, smooth matching and physical boundary conditions analytically select a vacuum polarization state, whose backreaction cloaks the classically naked region by a quantum trapped branch. In the latter, numerical horizon tracing shows that near a quantum-shifted threshold the exterior develops finite-mass marginally trapped surfaces rather than a zero-mass naked endpoint. These results suggest a global quantum picture in which the Choptuik naked singularity shares the fate of an ordinary black hole singularity: quantum effects push the putative Cauchy horizon behind a quantum-generated horizon, thereby reducing the loss of predictability to the standard black hole evaporation problem.
ER -