THE SPHERICALLY SYMMETRICAL COLLAPSE OF A MASSLESS SCALAR FIELD

We report on a numerical study of the spherically symmetric collapse o f a self-gravitating massless scalar field. Earlier results of Choptui k (1992, 1994) are confirmed. The field either disperses to infinity o r collapses to a black hole, depending on the strength of the initial data. For evolutions where the strength is close to but below the stre ngth required to form a black hole, we argue that there will be a regi on close to the axis where the scalar curvature and field energy densi ty can reach arbitrarily large levels, and which is visible to distant observers.