Scale Invariant Kaluza-Klein Theory and the Fate of the Gravitational Collapse

Abstract

Pushing forward the similitudes between the gravitational collapse and the expansion of the universe (in the reversed sense of time), it should be expected that, during the collapse, eventually, a spacetime domain would be reached where attained energy scales are very high. In consequence some of the compactified extra dimensions may be decompactified and some presently broken symmetries may be restored. A more fundamental theory (of which Einstein's theory is a symmetry broken phase) is then expected to take account of further description of the collapse. I propose a simple (classical) model for the description of the late stages of the gravitational collapse: A non-Riemannian, scale-invariant version of 5-dimensional Kaluza-Klein theory in which the standard Riemann structure of the higher-dimensional manifold is replaced by a Weyl-integrable one. A class of solutions, that generalize the "soliton" one by Gross and Perry and Davidson and Owen, is found. This class contains both naked singularities and wormhole solutions. On physical grounds it is argued that a wormhole is the most reasonable destiny of the gravitational collapse.