Relativistic stellar collapse of initially static configurations

Abstract: We study the dynamics of a radiating relativistic star in the presence of the electromagnetic field and the cosmological constant. The evolution of the model originates from an initially static configuration. The temporal behaviour of the system is governed by a nonlinear second order equation which is studied using a phase plane analysis. We show that in the general case, with all physical parameters present, fold bifurcations arise which are related to nonzero charge and cosmological constant. Our treatment clarifies earlier results and we extend our study to the general solution space. We obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the temporal evolution for a shear-free configuration during collapse.