English

No uniform density star in general relativity

General Physics 2011-05-02 v1

Abstract

As per general relativity (GR), there cannot be any superluminal propagation of energy. And thus, the sound speed in a continuous medium, cs=dp/dρc_s=\sqrt{dp/d\rho}, must be subluminal. However, if one would conceive of a {\em homogeneous} fluid, one would have cs=c_s=\infty unless pressure too would be homogeneous. Thus it is universally accepted that the maiden GR interior solution obtained by Schwarzschild, involving a homogeneous fluid having a boundary, is unphysical. However no one has ever shown how this exact solution is in reality devoid of physical reality. Also, this solution is universally used for approximate modelling of general relativistic stars and compact objects. But here first we show that in order that the Kretschmann scalar is continuous, one should have ρ=0\rho=0 for strictly homogeneous static stars. Further, by invoking the fact that in GR, given one time label tt one can choose another time label t=f(t)t_*=f(t) {\em without any loss of generality}, we obtain the same result that for a static homogeneous sphere ρ=0\rho=0. Consequently, it is eventually found that the static homogeneous sphere having a boundary is just part of the vacuum where cs=0c_s=0 rather than \infty. Therefore all general relativistic stars must be inhomogeneous.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1012.4985,
  title  = {No uniform density star in general relativity},
  author = {Abhas Mitra},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1012.4985},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

7 pages, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Science

R2 v1 2026-06-21T17:03:07.499Z