Related papers: Spontaneous violation of the energy conditions
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…
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…
We investigate the internal structure and the mass-radius relation of neutron stars in a recently proposed scalar-tensor theory dubbed asymmetron in which a massive scalar field undergoes spontaneous scalarization inside neutron stars. We…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
It was recently shown by Whinnett & Torres \cite{WT} that the phenomenon of spontaneous scalarization (SC) in compact objects (polytropes) was accompanied also by a {\it spontaneous violation of the weak energy condition} (WEC). Notably, by…
Neutron stars (NSs) in scalar-tensor (ST) theories of gravitation can acquire scalar charges and generate distinct spacetimes from those in General Relativity (GR) through the celebrated phenomenon of spontaneous scalarization. Taking on an…
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 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…
In certain modified gravity theories that include additional scalar degrees of freedom, compact objects such as black holes and neutron stars may undergo a process known as spontaneous scalarization, in which the scalar field is suddenly…
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…
In the scalar-tensor theories with a massive scalar field the coupling constants, and the coupling functions in general, which are observationally allowed, can differ significantly from those in the massless case. This fact naturally…
It is well known that neutron stars can undergo a phase transition under a certain class of Scalar Tensor Theories of gravity (STT's) where a new order parameter, the {\it scalar charge}, appears within the star. This is the well known…
Scalar-tensor theories of gravity are natural phenomenological alternatives to General Relativity, where the gravitational interaction is mediated by a scalar degree of freedom, besides the usual tensor gravitons. In regions of the…