M ar 1 99 9 Naked Singularity of the Vaidya - deSitter Spacetime and Cosmic

We investigate the formation of a locally naked singularity in the collapse of radiation shells in an expanding Vaidya-deSitter background. This is achieved by considering the behaviour of non-spacelike and radial geodesics originating at the singularity. A specific condition is determined for the existence of radially outgoing, null geodesics originating at the singularity which, when this condition is satisfied, becomes locally naked. This condition turns out to be the same as that in the collapse of radiation shells in an asymptotically flat background. Therefore, we have, at least for the case considered here, established that the asymptotic flatness of the spacetime is not essential for the development of a locally naked singularity. Our result then unequivocally supports the view that no special role be given to asymptotic observers (or, for that matter, any set of observers) in the formulation of the Cosmic Censorship Hypothesis.