The Collapse of Differentially Rotating Supermassive Stars: Conformally Flat Simulations

Abstract

We investigate the gravitational collapse of rapidly rotating relativistic supermassive stars by means of a 3+1 hydrodynamical simulations in conformally flat spacetime of general relativity. We study the evolution of differentially rotating supermassive stars of $q \equiv J/M^{2} \sim 1$ ($J$ is the angular momentum and $M$ is the gravitational mass of the star) from the onset of radial instability at $R/M \sim 65$ ($R$ is the circumferential radius of the star) to the point where the conformally flat approximation breaks down. We find that the collapse of the star of $q \gtrsim 1$, a radially unstable differentially rotating star form a black hole of $q \lesssim 1$. The main reason to prevent formation of a black hole of $q \gtrsim 1$ is that quite a large amount of angular momentum stays at the surface. We also find that most of the mass density collapses coherently to form a supermassive black hole with no appreciable disk nor bar. In the absence of nonaxisymmetric deformation, the collapse of differentially rotating supermassive stars from the onset of radial instability are the promising sources of burst and quasinormal ringing waves in the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna.