Black shells and naked shells

Abstract

In this paper, we study the collapse of a thin dust shell from the point of view of the horizon dynamics. We identify the critical surfaces at which time and space coordinates interchange their roles and investigate their properties by using the formalism of trapped surfaces. We show the existence of marginally outer trapped surfaces that are associated with the presence of quasi-local horizons. A particular shell configuration that avoids the formation of horizons is interpreted as naked shell.