Horizonless, singularity-free, compact shells satisfying NEC

Abstract: Gravitational collapse singularities are undesirable, yet inevitable to a large extent in General Relativity. When matter satisfying null energy condition collapses to the extent a closed trapped surface is formed, a singularity is inevitable according to Penrose's singularity theorem. Since positive mass vacuum solutions are generally black holes with trapped surfaces inside the event horizon, matter cannot collapse to an arbitrarily small size without generating a singularity. However, in modified theories of gravity where positive mass vacuum solutions are naked singularities with no trapped surfaces, it is reasonable to expect that matter can collapse to an arbitrarily small size without generating a singularity. Here we examine this possibility in the context of a modified theory of gravity with torsion in an extra dimension. We study singularity-free static shell solutions to evaluate the validity of the null energy condition on the shell. We find that with sufficiently high pressure, matter can be collapsed to arbitrarily small size without violating the null energy condition and without producing a singularity.