Critical Behaviour in Gravitational Collapse of a Yang-Mills Field

Abstract

We present results from a numerical study of spherically-symmetric collapse of a self-gravitating, SU(2) gauge field. Two distinct critical solutions are observed at the threshold of black hole formation. In one case the critical solution is discretely self-similar and black holes of arbitrarily small mass can form. However, in the other instance the critical solution is the n=1 static Bartnik-Mckinnon sphaleron, and black hole formation turns on at finite mass. The transition between these two scenarios is characterized by the superposition of both types of critical behaviour.