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Vacuum revealed: The final state of vacuum instabilities in compact stars

Paolo Pani, Vitor Cardoso, Emanuele Berti, Jocelyn Read, and Marcelo Salgado
Phys. Rev. D 83, 081501(R) – Published 14 April 2011

Abstract

Quantum fields in compact stars can be amplified due to a semiclassical instability, which may affect the structure of relativistic stars. We show that a classical counterpart to this instability occurs in exactly the same region of the parameter space. For negative coupling parameter ξ, the instability is related to the well-known “spontaneous scalarization” effect. The plausible end state is a static, asymptotically flat configuration with a nonzero scalar field, which is compatible with weak-field experiments and energetically favored over stellar solutions in general relativity. For ξ>0 the new configurations are energetically disfavored, and the end state of the instability remains an open issue. The vacuum instability may lead to new experimental opportunities to probe the nature of vacuum energy via astrophysical observations of compact stars.

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  • Received 26 February 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.83.081501

© 2011 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Paolo Pani1,2,*, Vitor Cardoso1,3,†, Emanuele Berti3,4,‡, Jocelyn Read3,§, and Marcelo Salgado5,∥

  • 1CENTRA, Departamento de Física, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa—UTL, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, 1049 Lisboa, Portugal
  • 2Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Cagliari, and INFN sezione di Cagliari, Cittadella Universitaria 09042 Monserrato, Italy
  • 3Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi 38677, USA
  • 4California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91109, USA
  • 5Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, A.P. 70-543, México D.F. 04510, México

  • *paolo.pani@ist.utl.pt
  • vitor.cardoso@ist.utl.pt
  • berti@phy.olemiss.edu
  • §jsread@relativity.phy.olemiss.edu
  • marcelo@nucleares.unam.mx

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Issue

Vol. 83, Iss. 8 — 15 April 2011

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