Just as a rotating magnetised neutron star has material pulled away from its surface to populate a magnetosphere, a similar process can occur as a result of neutron-star pulsations rather than rotation. This is of interest in connection with the overall study of neutron star oscillation modes but with a particular focus on the situation for magnetars. Following a previous Newtonian analysis of the production of a force-free magnetosphere in this way Timokhin et al. (2000), we present here a corresponding general-relativistic analysis. We give a derivation of the general relativistic Maxwell equations for small-amplitude arbitrary oscillations of a non-rotating neutron star with a generic magnetic field and show that these can be solved analytically under the assumption of low current density in the magnetosphere. We apply our formalism to toroidal oscillations of a neutron star with a dipole magnetic field and find that the low current density approximation is valid for at least half of the oscillation modes, similarly to the Newtonian case. Using an improved formula for the determination of the last closed field line, we calculate the energy losses resulting from toroidal stellar oscillations for all of the modes for which the size of the polar cap is small. We find that general relativistic effects lead to shrinking of the size of the polar cap and an increase in the energy density of the outflowing plasma. These effects act in opposite directions but the net result is that the energy loss from the neutron star is significantly smaller than suggested by the Newtonian treatment.
We investigate the conditions for radio emission in rotating and oscillating magnetars, by focusing on the main physical processes determining the position of their death-lines in the P-\dot{P} diagram, i.e. of those lines that separate the regions where the neutron star may be radio-loud or radio-quiet. After using the general relativistic expression for the electromagnetic scalar potential in the magnetar magnetosphere, we find that larger compactness parameters of the star as well as larger inclination angles between the rotation axis and the magnetic moment produce death-lines well above t…
The main contribution to the pulsar power can be calculated by assuming a rotating magnetically-dominated magnetosphere described by the force-free approximation. Although this simple model has been used thoroughly to study pulsar magnetospheres in the flat spacetime regime, only few works have considered the relativistic corrections introduced by the curvature and frame-dragging effects induced by a rotating neutron star. Here we revisit the problem and describe pulsar magnetospheres within full General Relativity, quantifying the corrections as a function of the angular velocity, the compact…
We study the magnetosphere of a slowly rotating magnetized neutron star subject to toroidal oscillations in the relativistic regime. Under the assumption of a zero inclination angle between the magnetic moment and the angular momentum of the star, we analyze the Goldreich-Julian charge density and derive a second-order differential equation for the electrostatic potential. The analytical solution of this equation in the polar cap region of the magnetosphere shows the modification induced by stellar toroidal oscillations on the accelerating electric field and on the charge density. We also find…
Most studies of the pulsar magnetosphere have assumed a pure magnetic dipole in flat spacetime. However, recent work suggests that the effects of general relativity are in fact of vital importance and that realistic pulsar magnetic fields will have a significant nondipolar component. We introduce a general analytical method for studying the axisymmetric force-free magnetosphere of a slowly-rotating star of arbitrary magnetic field, mass, radius and moment of inertia, including all the effects of general relativity. We confirm that spacelike current is generically present in the polar caps (sug…
In the canonical model of a pulsar, rotational energy is transmitted through the surrounding plasma via two electrical circuits, each connecting to the star over a small region known as a "polar cap." For a dipole-magnetized star, the polar caps coincide with the magnetic poles (hence the name), but in general, they can occur at any place and take any shape. In light of their crucial importance to most models of pulsar emission (from radio to X-ray to wind), we develop a general technique for determining polar cap properties. We consider a perfectly conducting star surrounded by a force-free m…
Let the reciprocal Newton 'constant' be an apparently non-dynamical Brans-Dicke scalar field damped oscillating towards its General Relativistic VEV. We show, without introducing additional matter fields or dust, that the corresponding cosmological evolution averagely resembles, in the Jordan frame, the familiar dark radiation -> dark matter -> dark energy domination sequence. The fingerprints of our theory are fine ripples, hopefully testable, in the FRW scale factor; they die away at the General Relativity limit. The possibility that the Brans-Dicke scalar also serves as the inflaton is favo…
The importance of general relativity to the induced electric field exterior to pulsars has been investigated by assuming aligned vacuum and non-vacuum magnetosphere models. For this purpose the stationary and axisymmetric vector potential in Schwarzschild geometry has been considered and the corresponding expressions for the induced electric field due to the rotation of the magnetic dipole have been derived for both vacuum and non-vacuum conditions. Due to the change in the magnetic dipole field in curved spacetime the induced electric field also changes its magnitude and direction and increas…
The no-hair theorem of general relativity states that isolated black holes are characterized by three parameters: mass, spin, and charge. In this Letter we consider Kerr black holes endowed with highly magnetized plasma-filled magnetospheres. Using general relativistic kinetic plasma and resistive magnetohydrodynamics simulations, we show that a dipole magnetic field on the event horizon opens into a split-monopole and reconnects in a plasmoid-unstable current-sheet. The no-hair theorem is satisfied, in the sense that all components of the stress-energy tensor decay exponentially in time. We m…
Magnetar magnetospheres gradually become twisted due to shearing by footpoint motion. The axisymmetric solutions for the force-free field with a power-law current model are calculated by taking into account general relativistic effects. Here we show how the magnetic energy and helicity are accumulated along a sequence of equilibria. In a strongly twisted case, a magnetic flux rope, in which a large amount of toroidal field is confined, detaches in the vicinity of the star. It is found this kind of magnetic field line structure is easily produced due to strong relativistic effects compared with…
Gravitational waves from oscillating neutron stars in axial symmetry are studied performing numerical simulations in full general relativity. Neutron stars are modeled by a polytropic equation of state for simplicity. A gauge-invariant wave extraction method as well as a quadrupole formula are adopted for computation of gravitational waves. It is found that the gauge-invariant variables systematically contain numerical errors generated near the outer boundaries in the present axisymmetric computation. We clarify their origin, and illustrate it possible to eliminate the dominant part of the sys…
A particular choice of the time function in the recently presented spherical solution by Dadhich [1] leads to a singularity free cosmological model which oscillates between two regular states. The energy-stress tensor involves anisotropic pressure and a heat flux term but is consistent with the usual energy conditions (strong, weak and dominant). By choosing the parameters suitably one can make the model consistent with observational data. An interesting feature of the model is that it involves blue shifts as in the quasi steady state model [2] but without violating general relativity.
The non-singular, oscillating Friedman cosmology within the framework of General Relativity is considered. The general oscillatory solution given in terms of elliptic functions and the conditions for its existence are discussed. It is shown that the wall-like-matter and the small, but negative cosmological constant are required for oscillations. The oscillations can , in principle, be deep enough to allow standard hot universe processes like recombination and nucleosynthesis. It is shown that the wall-like-matter and string-like-matter can be interpreted as scalar fields with some potentials. …
The magnetosphere structure of a magnetar is considered in the context of a theory of gravity with dynamical torsion field beyond the standard General Relativity (GR). To this end, the axially symmetric version of the Grad-Shafranov equation (GSE) is obtained in this theoretical framework. The resulting GSE solution in the case of the magnetosphere corresponds to a stream function containing also a pseudoscalar part. This function solution under axisymmetry presents a complex character that (as in the quantum field theoretical case) could be associated with an axidilaton field. Magnetar-pulsar…
We consider cosmological solutions to general relativity with a single barotropic fluid, where the pressure is a general function of the density, $p = f(ρ)$. We derive conditions for static and oscillating solutions and provide examples, extending earlier work to these simpler and more general single-fluid cosmologies. Generically we expect such solutions to suffer from instabilities, through effects such as quantum fluctuations or tunneling to zero size. We also find a classical instability ("no-go" theorem) for oscillating solutions of a single barotropic perfect fluid due to a necessarily n…
We show that the higher order curvature corrections to general relativity in the strong gravity regime of near horizon scales produce a rapidly oscillating and infalling Ricci scalar fireball just outside the horizon. This can generate the ringdown modes of gravitational waves having the same natural frequency as those which are generated by the black hole mergers. Our analysis provides a viable explanation to the echoes in the ringdown modes recently detected from the LIGO data, without invoking the existence of any exotic structures at the horizon.
The spectrum of oscillating compact objects can be considerably altered in alternative theories of gravity. In particular, it may be enriched by modes with no counterpart in general relativity, tied to the dynamics of additional degrees of freedom generically present in these theories. Detection of these modes, e.g. in the gravitational-wave signal from a binary compact object coalescence, could provide a powerful tool to probe the underlying theory of gravity. To access the potential of such a detection, it is crucial to understand the linear and nonlinear spectral features of dynamically for…
We ascribe the twin kilohertz Quasi Periodic Oscillations (kHz QPOs) of X-ray spectra of Low Mass X-Ray Binaries (LMXBs) to the pseudo-Newtonian Keplerian frequency and the apogee and perigee precession frequency of the same matter in the inner disk, and ascribe 15 - 60 Hz QPO (HBO) to the apogee (or perigee) precession and its second harmonic frequency to both apogee and perigee precession in the outer disk boundary of the neutron star (NS) magnetosphere. The radii of the inner and outer disks are correlated each other by a factor of two is assumed. The obtained conclusions include: all QPO f…
The interaction of black holes with ambient magnetic fields is important for a variety of highly energetic astrophysical phenomena. We study this interaction within the force-free approximation in which a tenuous plasma is assumed to have zero inertia. Blandford and Znajek (BZ) used this approach to demonstrate the conversion of some of the black hole's energy into electromagnetic Poynting flux in stationary and axisymmetric single black hole systems. We adopt this approach and extend it to examine asymmetric and, most importantly, dynamical systems by implementing the fully nonlinear field eq…
The double pulsar PSR J0737-3039A/B consists of two neutron stars in a highly relativistic orbit that displays a roughly 30-second eclipse when pulsar A passes behind pulsar B. Describing this eclipse of pulsar A as due to absorption occurring in the magnetosphere of pulsar B, we successfully use a simple geometric model to characterize the observed changing eclipse morphology and to measure the relativistic precession of pulsar B's spin axis around the total orbital angular momentum. This provides a test of general relativity and alternative theories of gravity in the strong-field regime. Our…
We consider Friedmann-Lema\^ıtre-Robertson-Walker flat cosmological models in the framework of general Jordan frame scalar-tensor theories of gravity with arbitrary coupling function and potential. For the era when the cosmological energy density of the scalar potential dominates over the energy density of ordinary matter, we use a nonlinear approximation of the decoupled scalar field equation for the regime close to the so-called limit of general relativity where the local weak field constraints are satisfied. We give the solutions in cosmological time with a particular attention to the class…
Adopting our new method for matching general relativistic, ideal magnetohydrodynamics to its force-free limit, we perform the first systematic simulations of force-free pulsar magnetospheres in general relativity. We endow the neutron star with a general relativistic dipole magnetic field, model the interior with ideal magnetohydrodynamics, and adopt force-free electrodynamics in the exterior. Comparing the spin-down luminosity to its corresponding Minkowski value, we find that general relativistic effects give rise to a modest enhancement: the maximum enhancement for $n=1$ polytropes is $\sim…
In the Newtonian limit of general relativity force acting on a test mass in a central gravitational field is conventionally defined by the attractive Newtonian gravity (inverse square) term plus a small repulsive cosmological force, which is proportional to the slow acceleration of the universe expansion. In this paper we consider the cosmological force correction due to fast quantum oscillations of the universe scale factor, which were suggested recently by Wang et al. (Phys. Rev. D 95, 103504 (2017)) as a potential solution of the cosmological constant problem. These fast fluctuations of the…
The strong proper time dilation and radial contraction in the gravitational field of compact sources leads to a frozen state of matter. It is shown that the falling particles and photons can not cross the gravitational radius due to the freezing, the horizon and singularity can not be formed at any finite coordinate time moment t=const. As the result, general relativity really predicts the heavy baryonic and quark stars and quasars instead of the black holes. A model of the oscillating Universe without a cosmological singularity, having a new type of the cosmological redshift, is considered. T…
Excited state soliton stars are studied numerically for the first time. The stability of spherically symmetric S-branch excited state oscillatons under radial perturbations is investigated using a 1D code. We find that these stars are inherently unstable either migrating to the ground state or collapsing to black holes. Higher excited state configurations are observed to cascade through intermediate excited states during their migration to the ground state. This is similar to excited state boson stars. Ground state oscillatons are then studied in full 3D numerical relativity. Finding the appro…
Recent study has shown that a non-singular oscillating potential, a feature of Infinite Derivative Gravity (IDG) theories, matches current experimental data better than the standard GR potential. In this work we show that this non-singular oscillating potential can be given by a wider class of theories which allows the defocusing of null rays, and therefore geodesic completeness. We consolidate the conditions whereby null geodesic congruences may be made past-complete, via the Raychaudhuri Equation, with the requirement of a non-singular Newtonian potential in an IDG theory. In so doing, we ex…
Pulsar magnetospheres in dynamical Chern-Simons gravity: deathline conditions and polar-cap particle acceleration
Harbin Institute of Technology（哈尔滨工业大学）；Samarkand State University（撒马尔罕国立大学）；Tashkent State Technical University（塔什干国立技术大学）；Institute of Theoretical Physics, National University of Uzbekistan（乌兹别克斯坦国立大学理论物理研究所）；Institute for Advanced Studies, New Uzbekistan University（新乌兹别克斯坦大学高级研究院）；University of Tashkent for Applied Sciences（塔什干应用科学大学）；Kimyo International University in Tashkent（塔什干化学国际大学）；New Uzbekistan University（新乌兹别克斯坦大学）
We summarize the general formalism describing surface flows in three-dimensional space in a form which is suitable for various astrophysical applications. We then apply the formalism to the analysis of non-radial perturbations of self-gravitating spherical fluid shells. Spherically symmetric gravitating shells (or bubbles) have been used in numerous model problems especially in general relativity and cosmology. A radially oscillating shell was recently suggested as a model for a variable cosmic object. Within Newtonian gravity we show that self-gravitating static fluid shells are unstable with…
Pulsars are thought to be highly magnetized rotating neutron stars accelerating charged particles along magnetic field lines in their magnetosphere and visible as pulsed emission from the radio wavelength up to high energy X-rays and gamma-rays. Being highly compact objects with compactness close to $Ξ= R_s/R\approx0.5$, where $\Rs=2\,G\,M/c^2$ is the Schwarzschild radius and $\{M,R\}$ the mass and radius of the neutron star, general-relativistic effects become important close to their surface. This is especially true for the polar caps where radio emission is supposed to emanate from, leading…
This work presents an implementation of the resistive MHD equations for a generic algebraic Ohm's law which includes the effects of finite resistivity within full General Relativity. The implementation naturally accounts for magnetic-field-induced anisotropies and, by adopting a phenomenological current, is able to accurately describe electromagnetic fields in the star and in its magnetosphere. We illustrate the application of this approach in interesting systems with astrophysical implications; the aligned rotator solution and the collapse of a magnetized rotating neutron star to a black hole…
We consider the gravitational properties of a global monopole on the basis of the simplest Higgs scalar triplet model in general relativity. We begin with establishing some common features of hedgehog-type solutions with a regular center, independent of the choice of the symmetry-breaking potential. There are six types of qualitative behavior of the solutions; we show, in particular, that the metric can contain at most one simple horizon. For the standard Mexican hat potential, the previously known properties of the solutions are confirmed and some new results are obtained. Thus, we show analy…
We study the effects of rotation on the torsional modes of oscillating relativistic stars with a solid crust. Earlier works in Newtonian theory provided estimates of the rotational corrections for the torsional modes and suggested that they should become CFS unstable, even for quite low rotation rates. In this work, we study the effect of rotation in the context of general relativity using elasticity theory and in the slow-rotation approximation. We find that the Newtonian picture does not change considerably. The inclusion of relativistic effects leads only to quantitative corrections. The de…
We investigate the viability of sub-millimeter wavelength oscillating deviations from the Newtonian potential at both the theoretical and the experimental/observational level. At the theoretical level such deviations are generic predictions in a wide range of extensions of General Relativity (GR) including $f(R)$ theories, massive Brans-Dicke theories, compactified extra dimension models and nonlocal extensions of GR. However, the range of parameters associated with such oscillating deviations is usually connected with instabilities. An exception emerges in nonlocal gravity theories where osci…
In general relativity, the Kerr metric uniquely represents the geometry surrounding an isolated, rotating black hole. An identification of significant non-Kerr features in some astrophysical source would then provide a `smoking-gun' for the break-down of general relativity in the strong-field regime. On the other hand, Kerr black holes are common to many other theories of gravity, and thus a validation of the Kerr metric does not necessarily favour general relativity amongst all possibilities. The nature of gravitational perturbations will however differ between different theories of gravity. …
We develop the large $D$ limit of general relativity for spherically symmetric scalar fields in both asymptotically flat and asymptotically anti-de Sitter spaces. The leading order equations in the $1/D$ expansion can be solved analytically, providing a large $D$ description of oscillating soliton stars. When the amplitude reaches a critical threshold, certain divergences occur which we interpret as signal of horizon formation. We estimate the size of the resulting black hole and obtain, with respect to that definition, a Choptuik scaling exponent for our family of solutions.
Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) are the products of frequent galaxy mergers. The coalescence of the SMBHBs is a distinct source of gravitational wave (GW) radiation. The detections of the strong GW radiation and their possible electromagnetic counterparts are essential. Numerical relativity suggests that the post-merger supermassive black hole (SMBH) gets a kick velocity up to 4000 km/s due to the anisotropic GW radiations. Here we investigate the dynamical co-evolution and interaction of the recoiling SMBHs and their galactic stellar environments with one million direct N-body simul…
We perform numerical evolutions of cosmological scenarios using a standard general relativistic code in spherical symmetry. We concentrate on two different situations: initial matter distributions that are homogeneous and isotropic, and perturbations to those that respect the spherical symmetry. As matter models we consider the case of a pressureless perfect fluid, i.e. dust, and the case of a real massive scalar field oscillating around the minimum of the potential. Both types of matter have been considered as possible dark matter candidates in the cosmology literature, dust being closely rel…
General-relativistic neutrino-radiation magnetohydrodynamics simulation of seconds-long black hole-neutron star mergers: Dependence on initial magnetic field strength, configuration, and neutron-star equation of state
Inspiraling and merging binary neutron stars (BNSs) are important sources of both gravitational waves and coincident electromagnetic counterparts. If the BNS total mass is larger than a threshold value, a black hole ensues promptly after merger. Through a statistical study in conjunction with recent LIGO/Virgo constraints on the nuclear equation of state, we estimate that up to $\sim 25\%$ of BNS mergers may result in prompt collapse. Moreover, we find that most models of the BNS mass function we study here predict that the majority of prompt-collapse BNS mergers have $q\gtrsim 0.8$. Prompt-co…
The dynamics of self-gravitating fluid bodies is described by the Euler-Einstein system of partial differential equations. The break-down of well-posedness on the fluid-vacuum interface remains a challenging open problem, which is manifested in simulations of oscillating or inspiraling binary neutron-stars. We formulate and implement a well-posed canonical hydrodynamic scheme, suitable for neutron-star simulations in numerical general relativity. The scheme uses a variational principle by Carter-Lichnerowicz stating that barotropic fluid motions are conformally geodesic and Helmholtz's third t…
Binary neutron star (NSNS) mergers can be sources of gravitational waves coincident with electromagnetic counterpart emission. To solidify their role as multimessenger sources, we present fully 3D, general relativistic, magnetohydrodynamic simulations of spinning NSNSs initially on quasicircular orbits that merge and undergo delayed collapse to a black hole (BH). The NSNSs consist of two identical stars modeled as $Γ=2$ polytropes with spin $χ_{NS}= 0.36$ aligned along the direction of the total orbital angular momentum $L$. Each star is initially threaded by a dynamical unimportant interior d…
It is of great interest to explore matter in nontrivial quantum arrangements, including Schrodinger cat-like states. Such states are sensitive to decoherence from their environment. Recently, in Ref. [1] we computed the rate of decoherence of a piece of superposed matter that primarily only interacts gravitationally, a dark-matter-Schrodinger-cat-state (DMSCS), within the nonrelativistic approximation. In this work we improve this to a general relativistic analysis. We firstly derive a single particle relativistic Schrodinger equation for a probe particle that passes through the DMSCS; the int…
As we showed in previous work, the dynamics and gravitational emission of binary neutron star systems in certain scalar-tensor theories can differ significantly from that expected from General Relativity in the coalescing stage. In this work we examine whether the characteristics of the electromagnetic counterparts to these binaries -- driven by magnetosphere interactions prior to the merger event -- can provide an independent way to test gravity in the most strongly dynamical stages of binary mergers. We find that the electromagnetic flux emitted by binaries in these scalar-tensor theories ca…
We study the multimessenger signals from the merger of a black hole with a magnetized neutron star using resistive magnetohydrodynamics simulations coupled to full general relativity. We focus on a case with a 5:1 mass ratio, where only a small amount of the neutron star matter remains post-merger, but we nevertheless find that significant electromagnetic radiation can be powered by the interaction of the neutron star's magnetosphere with the black hole. In the lead-up to merger, strong twisting of magnetic field lines from the inspiral leads to plasmoid emission and results in a luminosity in…
Oscillatons are spherically symmetric solutions to the Einstein Klein Gordon (EKG) equations for soliton stars made of real time dependent scalar fields. These equations are non singular and satisfy flatness conditions asymptotically with periodic time dependency. In this paper, we investigate the geodesic motion of particles moving around an oscillaton related to a time dependent scalar field. Bound orbital is found for these particles under the condition of particular values of angular momentum L and initial radial position. We discuss this topic for an exponential scalar field potential whi…
There is increasing numerical evidence that scalar fields can form long-lived quasi-bound states around black holes. Recent perturbative and numerical relativity calculations have provided further confirmation in a variety of physical systems, including both static and accreting black holes, and collapsing fermionic stars. In this work we investigate this issue yet again in the context of gravitationally unstable boson stars leading to black hole formation. We build a large sample of spherically symmetric initial models, both stable and unstable, incorporating a self-interaction potential with…
Recent work has shown that scalar fields around black holes can form long-lived, quasistationary configurations surviving for cosmological timescales. With this requirement, scalar fields cannot be discarded as viable candidates for dark matter halo models in galaxies around central supermassive black holes (SMBH). One hypothesis for the formation of most SMBHs at high redshift is the gravitational collapse of supermassive stars (SMS) with masses of $\sim10^5 \rm {M_{\odot}}$. Therefore, a constraint for the existence of quasi-bound states of scalar fields is their survival to such dynamic eve…
Quasi-normal oscillation modes of neutron stars provide a means to probe their interior composition using gravitational wave astronomy. We compute the frequencies and damping times of composition-dependent core g-modes of neutron stars containing quark matter employing linearized perturbative equations of general relativity. We find that ignoring background metric perturbations due to the oscillating fluid, as in the Cowling approximation, underestimates the g-mode frequency by up to 10% for higher mass stars, depending on the parameters of the nuclear equation of state and how the mixed phase…
We report results of a high-resolution numerical-relativity simulation for the merger of black hole-magnetized neutron star binaries on Japanese supercomputer "K". We focus on a binary that is subject to tidal disruption and subsequent formation of a massive accretion torus. We find the launch of thermally driven torus wind, subsequent formation of a funnel wall above the torus and a magnetosphere with collimated poloidal magnetic field, and high Blandford-Znajek luminosity. We show for the first time this picture in a self-consistent simulation. The turbulence-like motion induced by the non-a…
Gravitational wave and electromagnetic observations can provide new insights into the nature of matter at supra-nuclear densities inside neutron stars. Improvements in electromagnetic and gravitational wave sensing instruments continue to enhance the accuracy with which they can measure the masses, radii, and tidal deformability of neutron stars. These better measurements place tighter constraints on the equation of state of cold matter above nuclear density. In this article, we discuss a complementary approach to get insights into the structure of neutron stars by providing a model prediction…
The oscillation spectrum of a perturbed neutron star is intimately related to the physical properties of the star, such as the equation of state. Observing pulsating neutron stars therefore allows one to place constraints on these physical properties. However, it is not obvious exactly how much can be learnt from such measurements. If we observe for long enough, and precisely enough, is it possible to learn everything about the star? A classical result in the theory of spectral geometry states that one cannot uniquely `hear the shape of a drum'. More formally, it is known that an eigenfrequenc…
The observation of several neutron stars in the center of supernova remnants and with significantly lower values of the dipolar magnetic field than the average radio-pulsar population has motivated a lively debate about their formation and origin, with controversial interpretations. A possible explanation requires the slow rotation of the proto-neutron star at birth, which is unable to amplify its magnetic field to typical pulsar levels. An alternative possibility, the hidden magnetic field scenario, considers the accretion of the fallback of the supernova debris onto the neutron star as respo…
We performed 3D numerical simulations of the merger of equal-mass binary neutron stars in full general relativity using a new large scale supercomputer. We take the typical grid size as (505,505,253) for (x,y,z) and the maximum grid size as (633,633,317). These grid numbers enable us to put the outer boundaries of the computational domain near the local wave zone and hence to calculate gravitational waveforms of good accuracy (within $\sim 10%$ error) for the first time. To model neutron stars, we adopt a $Γ$-law equation of state in the form $P=(Γ-1)ρε$, where P, $ρ$, $\varep$ and $Γ$ are the…
We consider k-essence, a scalar-tensor theory with first-order derivative self-interactions that can screen local scales from scalar fifth forces, while allowing for sizeable deviations from General Relativity on cosmological scales. We construct fully nonlinear static stellar solutions that show the presence of this screening mechanism, and we use them as initial data for simulations of stellar oscillations and gravitational collapse in spherical symmetry. We find that for k-essence theories of relevance for cosmology, the screening mechanism works in the case of stellar oscillation and suppr…
