Gravitational Collapse of a Self-Interacting Scalar Field

We construct and study here a class of collapsing scalar field models with a nonzero potential. The weak energy condition is satisfied by the collapsing configuration and it is shown that the end state of collapse could be either a black hole or a naked singularity. It is seen that physically it is the rate of collapse that governs these outcomes of the dynamical evolution. The implications for the cosmic censorship conjecture are discussed.