On the strength of the Kerr singularity and cosmic censorship

Abstract

It has been suggested by Israel that the Kerr singularity cannot be strong in the sense of Tipler, for it tends to cause repulsive effects. We show here that, contrary to that suggestion, nearly all null geodesics reaching this singularity do in fact terminate in Tipler's strong curvature singularity. Implications of this result are discussed in the context of an earlier cosmic censorship theorem which constraints the occurrence of Kerr-like naked singularities in generic collapse situations.