SINGULARITY STRUCTURE OF A SELF-SIMILAR TOLMAN TYPE MODEL IN A HIGHER-DIMENSIONAL SPACETIME

A Tolman-Bondi type inhomogeneous, spherically symmetric metric is obt ained in an (n+2)-dimensional spacetime with n greater than or equal t o 2. The metric form admits the familiar shell focusing singularity wh ich, depending on the inhomogeneity parameter, may become naked. Moreo ver, for the particular case of a marginally bound collapsing model on e may also obtain strong-curvature singularities, which provides yet a nother counterexample to the cosmic censorship hypothesis. It is inter esting to point out that it is the assumption of self similarity rathe r than spherical symmetry which deter mines the nature of the singular ity. This, however, extends an earlier observation of Lake and Zannias in four-dimensional spacetime.