Strength of the null singularity inside black holes - art. no. 104033

We study analytically the Cauchy horizon singularity inside spherically sym metric charged black holes, coupled to a spherical, self-gravitating, minim ally coupled, massless scalar field. We show that all causal geodesics term inate at the Cauchy horizon at a null singularity, which is weak according to the Tipler classification. The singularity is also deformationally weak in the sense of Ori. Our results are valid at arbitrary points along the nu ll singularity, in particular at late retarded times, when nonlinear effect s are crucial. [S0556-2821(99)04920-6].