Comments on "Derivation of the Raychaudhuri Equation" by Dadhich

Abstract

In a recent preprint, gr-qc/0511123, Dadhich has given a brief yet beautiful exposition on some of the research works by Prof. A.K. Raychaudhuri. Here Dadhich highlights the fact that the apparently ``self-evident'' assumption of occurrence of ``trapped surfaces'' may not be realized atleast in some specific cosmological models though no general proof for non-occurrence of trapped surfaces exists in the cosmological context. However, Dadhich added, without sufficient justification, that trapped surfaces should occur for collapse of isolated bodies. We point out that actually trapped surfaces do not occur even for collapse of spherically symmetric isolated bodies. Further unlike the cosmological case, for isolated bodies, an exact proof for generic non-occurrence of trapped surfaces is available. Thus for isolated bodies, the above referred apparently ``self-evident'' assumption fails much more acutely than in cosmology. Many recent astrophysical observations tend to corroborate the fact trapped surfaces do not occur for isolated bodies. Two recent specific papers (PRD) are cited to show that when radiative non-diispative collapse can prevent formation of trapped surfaces.