arXiv · gr-qc/0201020
Mass loss by a scalar charge in an expanding universe
Abstract
We study the phenomenon of mass loss by a scalar charge -- a point particle that acts a source for a noninteracting scalar field -- in an expanding universe. The charge is placed on comoving world lines of two cosmological spacetimes: a de Sitter universe, and a spatially-flat, matter-dominated universe. In both cases, we find that the particle's rest mass is not a constant, but that it changes in response to the emission of monopole scalar radiation by the particle. In de Sitter spacetime, the particle radiates all of its mass within a finite proper time. In the matter-dominated cosmology, this happens only if the charge of the particle is sufficiently large; for smaller charges the particle first loses some of its mass, but then regains it all eventually.
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Lior M. Burko, Abraham I. Harte, Eric Poisson. 2002-04-12. Mass loss by a scalar charge in an expanding universe. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.65.124006
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