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Higher Lovelock curvature terms favor local nakedness in dust collapse
Phys. Rev. D 114, 084061 – Published 21 October, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/753b-8nxg
Abstract
We show that higher-curvature Lovelock terms do not restore local cosmic censorship in spherical dust collapse, but instead promote the local visibility of central shell-focusing singularities. On the collapse branch with positive highest-order Lovelock coefficient , the highest nonvanishing Lovelock order controls both the near-singularity collapse and the formation of trapped surfaces. In noncritical dimensions , the apparent-horizon curve approaches the singularity curve with trapping exponent . Comparing this scale with the first nonvanishing correction to the singularity curve gives the local-visibility condition , provided the singularity curve opens outward. Thus, increasing enlarges the class of inhomogeneous initial data producing outgoing radial null rays from the central singularity. In the critical odd-dimensional branch , no apparent horizon forms sufficiently close to the center, so any outward opening of the singularity curve gives local visibility. The locally visible singularities are Królak-strong along the emerging null rays, with Tipler strength reached at threshold. For bound and unbound collapse, the noncritical exponents are unchanged: the energy function modifies the opening of the singularity curve, while in the critical branch it enters the leading terminal collapse velocity.
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