Naked Singularities beyond Spherical Symmetry: Singular Inner Cauchy Horizons for the Einstein-Scalar Field System

Abstract

In this work, we investigate the formation of naked singularities for the $3+1$-dimensional Einstein-scalar field system without symmetry assumptions. We generalize the spherically symmetric and self-similar naked-singularity solution constructed by Christodoulou in [4] by prescribing non-spherically symmetric initial data along both incoming and outgoing initial null hypersurfaces. We then establish global existence for the resulting solutions and analyze the singular structure of the inner Cauchy horizon. Our construction is based on employing a notion of four-type differences and designing a system of scale-invariant weighted norms to control the corresponding geometry. We show that the constructed spacetimes retain a global naked-singularity structure, characterized by an incomplete future null infinity and a singular inner Cauchy horizon. Moreover, we derive detailed asymptotics near the inner Cauchy horizon and prove the desired $C^{1, \fracκ{1-κ}+}$ inextendibility of these solutions, where $κ\in (0,1/3)$ is the self-similar parameter. This indicates a connection between weak and strong cosmic censorship: for the class of non-spherically symmetric solutions constructed here, the failure of weak cosmic censorship in its strict formulation is accompanied by a quantitative inextendibility mechanism at the inner Cauchy horizon.