Self-Similar Gravitational Dynamics, Singularities and Criticality in 2D

Abstract: We initiate a systematic study of continuously self-similar (CSS) gravitational dynamics in two dimensions, motivated by critical phenomena observed in higher dimensional gravitational theories. We consider CSS spacetimes admitting a homothetic Killing vector (HKV) field. For a general two-dimensional gravitational theory coupled to a dilaton field and Maxwell field, we find that the assumption of continuous self-similarity determines the form of the dilaton coupling to the curvature. Certain limits produce two important classes of models, one of which is closely related to two-dimensional target space string theory and the other being Liouville gravity. The gauge field is shown to produce a shift in the dilaton potential strength. We consider static black hole solutions and find spacetimes with uncommon asymptotic behaviour. We show the vacuum self-similar spacetimes to be special limits of the static solutions. We add matter fields consistent with self-similarity (including a certain model of semi-classical gravity) and write down the autonomous ordinary differential equations governing the gravitational dynamics. Based on the phenomenon of finite-time blow-up in ODEs, we argue that spacetime singularities are generic in our models. We present qualitatively diverse results from analytical and numerical investigations regarding matter field collapse and singularities. We find interesting hints of a Choptuik-like scaling law.