title: Gott time machines, BTZ black hole formation, and choptuik scaling
abstract: We study the formation of Banados-Teitelboim-Zanelli black holes by the collision of point particles. It is shown that the Gott time machine, originally constructed for the case of vanishing cosmological constant, provides a precise mechanism for black hole formation. As a result, one obtains an exact analytic understanding of the Choptuik scaling.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematical Physics, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Birmingham
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sen