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arXiv · 2007.14429

Structure of neutron stars in massive scalar-tensor gravity

Roxana Rosca-Mead·Christopher J. Moore·Ulrich Sperhake·Michalis Agathos·Davide Gerosa
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Abstract

We compute families of spherically symmetric neutron-star models in two-derivative scalar-tensor theories of gravity with a massive scalar field. The numerical approach we present allows us to compute the resulting spacetimes out to infinite radius using a relaxation algorithm on a compactified grid. We discuss the structure of the weakly and strongly scalarized branches of neutron-star models thus obtained and their dependence on the linear and quadratic coupling parameters $\alpha_0$, $\beta_0$ between the scalar and tensor sectors of the theory, as well as the scalar mass $\mu$. For highly negative values of $\beta_0$, we encounter configurations resembling a "gravitational atom", consisting of a highly compact baryon star surrounded by a scalar cloud. A stability analysis based on binding-energ calculations suggests that these configurations are unstable and we expect them to migrate to models with radially decreasing baryon density {\it and} scalar field strength.

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Roxana Rosca-Mead, Christopher J. Moore, Ulrich Sperhake, Michalis Agathos, Davide Gerosa. 2020-07-28. Structure of neutron stars in massive scalar-tensor gravity. https://doi.org/10.3390/sym12091384

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