Related papers: On the phase transition mechanism of spontaneous s…
Spontaneous scalarization phenomenon in scalar-tensor gravity is known to be a form of phase transition, and it was recently shown that the order of this transition changes depending on the parameters of the theory. There exists a…
Scalarization is a mechanism that endows strongly self-gravitating bodies, such as neutron stars and black holes, with a scalar-field configuration. It resembles a phase transition in that the scalar configuration appears only when a…
Compact stars above a critical stellar mass develop large scalar fields in some scalar-tensor theories. This scenario, called spontaneous scalarization, has been an intense topic of study since it passes weak-field gravity tests naturally…
There has been a recent revival in understanding the spontaneous scalarization phenomenon in scalar-tensor gravity as a phase transition. Using the tools of the Landau theory, we now know that first-order transitions where scalarization…
Although general relativity passes all precision tests to date, there are several reasons to go beyond the current model of gravitation and search for new fundamental physics. This means looking for new, so far undetected, fields. Scalars…
In scalar-tensor theories, compact objects may experience spontaneous scalarization. Recently, it was shown that matter-induced spontaneous scalarization of neutron stars is predominantly associated with a first-order phase transition. Here…
Spontaneous scalarization is an interesting mechanism for modification of gravity by nonminimal coupling of a scalar field to matter or curvature invariants in the context of scalar-tensor theories, and its onset is signaled by linear…
Spontaneous scalarization is a mechanism that endows relativistic stars and black holes with a nontrivial configuration only when their spacetime curvature exceeds some threshold. The standard way to trigger spontaneous scalarization is via…
We study in the physical frame the phenomenon of spontaneous scalarization that occurs in scalar-tensor theories of gravity for compact objects. We discuss the fact that the phenomenon occurs exactly in the regime where the Newtonian…
In scalar-tensor theories, spontaneous scalarization is a phase transition that can occur in ultra-dense environments such as neutron stars. The scalar field develops a non-trivial configuration once the stars exceeds a compactness…
A decade ago, it was shown that a wide class of scalar-tensor theories can pass very restrictive weak field tests of gravity and yet exhibit non-perturbative strong field deviations away from General Relativity. This phenomenon was called…
Gravitational wave observations can provide unprecedented insight into the fundamental nature of gravity and allow for novel tests of modifications to General Relativity. One proposed modification suggests that gravity may undergo a phase…
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…
Scalar-tensor theories of gravity are extensions of General Relativity (GR) including an extra, nonminimally coupled scalar degree of freedom. A wide class of these theories, albeit indistinguishable from GR in the weak field regime,…
In gravity theories that exhibit spontaneous scalarization, astrophysical objects are identical to their general relativistic counterpart until they reach a certain threshold in compactness or curvature. Beyond this threshold, they acquire…
Spontaneous scalarization is a mechanism that allows a scalar field to go undetected in weak gravity environments and yet develop a nontrivial configuration in strongly gravitating systems. At the perturbative level it manifests as a…
We study the effect of a mass term in the spontaneous scalarization of neutron stars, for a wide range of scalar field parameters and neutron star equations of state. Even though massless scalars have been the focus of interest in…
We identify a class of scalar-tensor theories with coupling between the scalar and the Gauss-Bonnet invariant that exhibit spontaneous scalarization for both black holes and compact stars. In particular, these theories formally admit all of…
Spontaneous scalarization of black holes typically occurs through the condensation of a scalar field, with the field evolving from a $U(1)$-symmetric phase into a symmetry-breaking one with lower energy. We show that there exist…
We show that the spontaneous scalarization scenario in scalar-tensor theories is a specific case of a more general phenomenon. The key fact is that the instability causing the spontaneous growth in scalars is due to the nonminimal coupling…