Gravitational collapse and formation of black holes in the Brans-Dicke theory of gravity with (2+1) dimensions.

In this thesis, the gravitational collapse of the Brans-Dicke scalar field and formation of black holes in 2+1 Gravity is examined. In contrast to general relativity, there are two conformally related frames in the Brans-Dicke theory: the Jordan frame and the Einstein frame. All the self-similar solutions are first re-derived in three dimensional Brans-Dicke theory, and then their local and global properties are studied by paying particular attention to the formation of black holes due to the gravitational collapse of the scalar field.