Lapse in the Equatorial Plane

t/M = 0.0	t/M = 30,360

We begin our post-Newtonian simulation with a central lapse of 0.99, a nearly Newtonian star. When the simulation terminates, the central lapse has dropped to 0.34. At this point, the post-Newtonian approximation begins to break down. This animation is plotted in comoving coordinates (click here for a definition of comoving coordinates). Thus, the size of the grid shrinks as time progresses.

Inward Fluid Motion

Here we show the fluid velocities projected onto the meridional plane. As the simulation terminates, there is still significant inward motion. One can then infer that collapse to a black hole is inevitable.