A numerical simulation is presented here of the evolution of initial data of the kind that was conjectured by Hertog, Horowitz, and Maeda to be a violation of cosmic censorship. Those initial data are essentially a thick domain wall connecting two regions of anti–de Sitter space. The initial data have a free parameter that is the initial size of the wall. The simulation shows no violation of cosmic censorship, but rather the formation of a small black hole. The simulation described here is for a moderate wall size and leaves open the possibility that cosmic censorship might be violated for larger walls.

• Received 17 March 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.69.124017