Stress state of an elastic ball in a spherically symmetric gravitational field

We consider a spherically symmetric static problem of general relativity whose solution was obtained in 1916 by Schwarzschild for a metric form of a special type. This solution determines the metric coefficients of the exterior and interior Riemannian spaces generated by a gravitating solid ball of constant density and includes the so-called gravitational radius r g . For a ball of outer radius R = r g , the metric coefficients are singular, and hence the radius r g is traditionally assumed to be the radius of the event horizon of an object called a black hole. The solution of the interior problem obtained for an incompressible ideal fluid shows that the pressure at the ball center increases without bound for R =9/8 r g , which is traditionally used for the physical justification of the existence of black holes. The discussion of Schwarzschild’s traditional solution carried out in this paper shows that it should be generalized with respect to both the geometry of the Riemannian space and the elastic medium model. In this connection, we consider the general metric form of a spherically symmetric Riemannian space and prove that the solution of the corresponding static problem exists for a broad class of metric forms. A special metric form based on the assumption that the gravitation generating the Riemannian space inside a fluid ball or an elastic ball does not change the ball mass is singled out from this class. The solution obtained for the special metric form is singular with respect to neither the metric coefficients nor the pressure in the fluid ball and the stresses in the elastic ball. The obtained solution is compared with Schwarzschild’s traditional solution.