Quantum Naked Singularities in 2d Dilaton Gravity

Abstract

Roughly speaking, naked singularities are singularities that may be seen by timelike observers. The Cosmic Censorship conjecture forbids their existence by stating that a reasonable system of energy will not, under reasonable conditions, collapse into a naked singularity. There are however many (classical) counter-examples to this conjecture in the literature. We propose a defense of the conjecture through the quantum theory. We will show that the Hawking effect and the accompanying back reaction, when consistently applied to naked singularities in two dimensional models of dilaton gravity with matter and a cosmological constant, prevent their formation by causing them to explode or emit radiation catastrophically. This contrasts with black holes which radiate slowly. If this phenomenon is reproduced in the four dimensional world, the explosion of naked singularities should have observable consequences.