English

Dynamical transition to spontaneous scalarization in neutron stars: The massive scalar field scenario

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2024-10-04 v2 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Abstract

We analyze numerically the dynamical transition to spontaneous scalarization in neutron stars in the framework of a scalar-tensor theory of gravity where the scalar field is free but massive, and it is coupled nonminimally to gravity in the Jordan frame. We show that the quasistatic configuration of the star that settles after the transition can avoid the observational constraints imposed on the amount of scalarization by several observations in binary systems due to the presence of the mass term, which suppresses the range of the scalar field. We also study the impact of the scalar field mass on the total mass of the star relative to the massless scenario.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2407.08124,
  title  = {Dynamical transition to spontaneous scalarization in neutron stars: The massive scalar field scenario},
  author = {Juan Carlos Degollado and Néstor Ortiz and Marcelo Salgado},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.08124},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

15 pages, 14 figures. Reviewed version. Matches published version in PRD