A Limit for Gravitational Collapse

Earlier, under certain simplifying assumptions, on the basis of the General Theory of Relativity, it has been concluded by many authors that when the radius of a gravitationally collapsing spherical object of massM reaches the critical value of the Scharzschild radiusR _s=2GM/c ², then, in a co-moving frame, the object collapses catastrophically to a point. However, in drawing this conclusion due consideration has not been given to the nuclear forces between the nucleons. In particular, the very strong ‘hard-core’ repulsive interaction between the nucleons which has the range ∼0.4×10^-13 cm has been totally ignored. On taking into account this ‘hard-core’ repulsive interaction, it is found that no spherical object of massM g can collapse to a volume of radius smaller thanR _min=(1.68×10^-6)M ^1/3 cm or to a density larger than ρ_max=5.0 × 10¹⁶ g cm^-3. It has also been pointed out that objects of mass smaller thanM _c∼1.21×10³³ g can not cross the Schwarzschild barrier and gravitationally collapse. The only course left to the objects of mass less thanM _cis to reach the equilibrium as either a white dwarf or a neutron star.