Penrose proves that collapse to a singularity is generic
Roger Penrose published a short paper in Physical Review Letters showing that once a trapped surface forms in a collapsing region, general relativity implies geodesic incompleteness - worldlines that simply end - for any matter satisfying reasonable energy conditions, and without assuming symmetry. This removed the standing objection that the Oppenheimer-Snyder result was an artefact of idealisation, and it is the work for which he received half of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- The singularity · concept · not located
- Roger Penrose · person · United Kingdom · not located
- The event horizon · concept · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Gravitational Collapse and Space-Time Singularities
Establishes that geodesic incompleteness follows generically from the formation of a trapped surface, without an assumption of symmetry. V55 VERIFICATION BASIS: not consulted in session; no research tool was available. Volume and page are from recall of a canonical citation and must be checked.
Physical Review Letters · 1965 · Partly verified
Roger Penrose, Physical Review Letters 14, 57 (1965)
Recorded on The singularity
- Schwarzschild solves the field equations for a point mass
- Oppenheimer and Snyder compute continued gravitational contraction
- Penrose proves that collapse to a singularity is generic
- GW150914 - two black holes merge and the signal reaches Earth
- The Nobel Prize in Physics recognises black holes twice over
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.