Abstract. Implicitly contained in recent results of Dray and Joshi (1990) is the possibility of joining Reissner-Nordstrom spacetimes with different charges and masses along colliding charged shells in such a way that there is no mass or charge associated with two of the 'shells'. These results can be used to model at collapsing charged shell which bounces when its total (gravitational and electromagnetic) energy is zero and also to model the spontaneous creation of particle/antiparticle pairs.

Print publication: Issue 7 (July 1990)