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 focus on the case where the Compton wavelength is shorter than 10 km, which has not been investigated in the literature. By solving the modified Einstein equations, either purely numerically or by partially using a semianalytic method, we find that not only the weakening of gravity by spontaneous scalarization but also the scalar force affect the internal structure significantly in the massive case. We also find that the maximum mass of neutron stars is larger for certain parameter sets than that in general relativity and reaches 2 solar mass even if the effect of strange hadrons is taken into account. There is even a range of parameters where the maximum mass of neutron stars largely exceeds the threshold that violates the causality bound in general relativity.
Recently, a new nonlinear mechanism for black hole scalarization, different from the standard spontaneous scalarization, was demonstrated to exist for scalar Gauss-Bonnet theories in which no tachyonic instabilities can occur. Thus Schwarzschild black hole is linearly stable but instead nonlinear instability can kick-in. In the present paper we extend on this idea in the case of multi-scalar Gauss-Bonnet gravity with exponential coupling functions of third and fourth leading order in the scalar field. The main motivation comes from the fact that these theories admit hairy compact objects with …
In the present letter we show the existence of a fully nonlinear dynamical mechanism for the formation of scalarized black holes which is different from the spontaneous scalarization. We consider a class of scalar-Gauss-Bonnet gravity theories within which no tachyonic instability can occur. Although the Schwarzschild black holes are linearly stable against scalar perturbations, we show dynamically that for certain choices of the coupling function they are unstable against nonlinear scalar perturbations. This nonlinear instability leads to the formation of new black holes with scalar hair. The…
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 a non-trivial scalar configuration, which also affects their structure. The onset of scalarization is controlled only by terms that contribute to linear perturbation around solutions of general relativity. The complete set of these terms has been identified for generalized scalar-tensor theories. Stepping on this result, we study the onset on scalarization i…
In the present paper we study models of neutron stars in a class of extended scalar-tensor Gauss-Bonnet (ESTGB) theories for which the scalar degree of freedom is exited only in the strong curvature regime. We show that in the framework of the ESTGB theories under consideration there exist new neutron star solutions which are formed via spontaneous scalarization of the general relativistic neutron stars. In contrast to the spontaneous scalarization in the standard scalar-tensor theories which is induced by the presence of matter, in our case the scalarization is induced by the spacetime curvat…
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 analysis indicates it should not. Finally we discuss the way the phenomenon depends on the equation of state used to describe the nuclear matter.
Benefitting from the unequaled precision of the pulsar timing technique, binary pulsars are important testbeds of gravity theories, providing some of the tightest bounds on alternative theories of gravity. One class of well-motivated alternative gravity theories, the scalar-tensor gravity, predict large deviations from general relativity for neutron stars through a nonperturbative phenomenon known as spontaneous scalarization. This effect, which cannot be tested in the Solar System, can now be tightly constrained using the latest results from the timing of a set of 7 binary pulsars (PSRs J0348…
We investigate the tachyonic instability of Kerr-Newman (KN) black holes in the Einstein-Maxwell-scalar (EMS) theory with a positive coupling parameter $α$. This corresponds to exploring the onset of spontaneous scalarization for KN black holes. For this purpose, we use the hyperboloidal foliation method (HFM) to solve the linearized scalar equation numerically. We obtain a 3D graph [$\log_{10}α(a,Q)$] which indicates the onset surface for spontaneous scalarization of KN black holes in the EMS theory. We find that there is no lower bound on the rotational parameter $a$, but its upper bound is …
We show that the phenomenon of spontaneous scalarization predicted in neutron stars within the framework of scalar-tensor tensor theories of gravity, also takes place in boson stars without including a self-interaction term for the boson field (other than the mass term), contrary to what was claimed before. The analysis is performed in the physical (Jordan) frame and is based on a 3+1 decomposition of spacetime assuming spherical symmetry.
The phenomenon of spontaneous scalarization of charged black holes has attracted a lot of attention. In this work, we study the dynamical process of the spontaneous scalarization of charged black hole in asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetimes in Einstein-Maxwell-scalar models. Including various non-minimal couplings between the scalar field and Maxwell field, we observe that an initial scalar-free configuration suffers tachyonic instability and both the scalar field and the black hole irreducible mass grow exponentially at early times and saturate exponentially at late times. For fractional …
We examine the constraining power of current gravitational-wave data on scalar-tensor-Gauss-Bonnet theories that allow for the spontaneous scalarization of black holes. In the fiducial model that we consider, a slowly rotating black hole must scalarize if its size is comparable to the new length scale $λ$ that the theory introduces, although rapidly rotating black holes of any mass are effectively indistinguishable from their counterparts in general relativity. With this in mind, we use the gravitational-wave event GW190814$\,\unicode{x2014}\,$whose primary black hole has a spin that is bounde…
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 a tachyonic instability at the linear level, which is eventually quenched due to the effect of non-linear terms. In this paper, we identify all of the terms in the Horndeski action that contribute to the (effective) mass term in the linearized equations and, hence, can cause or contribute to the tachyonic instability that triggers scalarization.
We study scalar fields in a black hole background and show that, when the scalar is suitably coupled to curvature, rapid rotation can induce a tachyonic instability. This instability, which is the hallmark of spontaneous scalarization in the linearized regime, is expected to be quenched by nonlinearities and endow the black hole with scalar hair. Hence, our results demonstrate the existence of a broad class of theories that share the same stationary black hole solutions with general relativity at low spins, but which exhibit black hole hair at sufficiently high spins ($a/M\gtrsim 0.5$). This r…
We study the linear instability and the nonlinear dynamical evolution of the Reissner-Nordström (RN) black hole in the Einstein-Maxwell-scalar theory in asymptotic flat spacetime. We focus on the coupling function $f(ϕ)=e^{-bϕ^2}$ which allows both the scalar-free RN solution and scalarized black hole solution. We first present the evolution of system parameters during dynamic scalarization. For parameter regions where spontaneous scalarization occurs, we find that the evolution of the scalar field at the horizon is dominated by the fundamental unstable mode from linear analysis at early times…
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 spontaneous scalarization so far, recent observations of binary systems rule out most of their interesting parameter space. We point out that adding a mass term to the scalar field potential is a natural extension to the model that avoids these observational bounds if the Compton wavelength of the scalar is small compared to the binary separation. Our model is formal…
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, predicts a radically different phenomenology for neutron stars, due to a nonperturbative, strong-field effect referred to as spontaneous scalarization. This effect is known to occur in theories where the effective linear coupling $β_0$ between the scalar and matter fields is sufficiently negative, i.e. $β_0 \lesssim -4.35$, and has been strongly constrained by pul…
We study spontaneous scalarization in Scalar-Tensor boson stars. We find that scalarization does not occur in stars whose bosons have no self-interaction. We introduce a quartic self-interaction term into the boson Lagrangian and show that when this term is large, scalarization does occur. Strong self-interaction leads to a large value of the compactness (or sensitivity) of the boson star, a necessary condition for scalarization to occur, and we derive an analytical expression for computing the sensitivity of a boson star in Brans-Dicke theory from its mass and particle number. Next we comment…
It has recently been proved numerically that spinning black holes in Einstein-scalar theories which are characterized by a non-minimal negative coupling of the scalar field to the Gauss-Bonnet invariant of the curved spacetime may develop exponentially growing instabilities. Intriguingly, it has been demonstrated that this tachyonic instability, which marks the onset of the spontaneous scalarization phenomenon in the Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet-scalar theory, characterizes spinning black holes whose dimensionless angular momentum parameter ${\bar a}\equiv a/M$ is larger than some critical value ${\b…
We study the spontaneous scalarization of a standard conducting charged sphere embedded in Maxwell-scalar models in flat spacetime, wherein the scalar field $ϕ$ is nonminimally coupled to the Maxwell electrodynamics. This setup serves as a toy model for the spontaneous scalarization of charged (vacuum) black holes in Einstein-Maxwell-scalar (generalized scalar-tensor) models. In the Maxwell-scalar case, unlike the black hole cases, closed-form solutions exist for the scalarized configurations. We compute these configurations for three illustrations of nonminimal couplings: one that \textit{exa…
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 the stationary solutions of general relativity, but these are not dynamically preferred if certain conditions are satisfied. Remarkably, black holes exhibit scalarization if their mass lies within one of many narrow bands. We find evidence that scalarization can occur in neutron stars as well.
In the present paper we consider a class of extended scalar-tensor-Gauss-Bonnet (ESTGB) theories for which the scalar degree of freedom is excited only in the extreme curvature regime. We show that in the mentioned class of ESTGB theories there exist new black hole solutions which are formed by spontaneous scalarization of the Schwarzaschild balck holes in the extreme curvature regime. In this regime, below certain mass, the Schwarzschild solution becomes unstable and new branch of solutions with nontrivial scalar field bifurcate from the Schwarzschild one. As a matter of fact, more than one b…
It has recently been proved that nontrivial couplings between scalar fields and the Gauss-Bonnet invariant of a curved spacetime may allow a central black hole to support spatially regular scalar hairy configurations. Interestingly, former numerical studies of the intriguing black-hole spontaneous scalarization phenomenon have demonstrated that the composed hairy black-hole-scalar-field configurations exist if and only if the dimensionless coupling parameter $\barη$ of the theory belongs to a discrete set $\{[\barη^{-}_{n},\barη^{+}_{n}]\}_{n=0}^{n=\infty}$ of scalarization bands. We have exam…
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 are the easiest fields to consider and they are ubiquitous in both extensions of the Standard Model and in alternative theories of gravity. That is why a lot of attention has been drawn towards the investigation of scalar-tensor theories, where gravity is described by both the metric tensor and a scalar field. A particularly interesting phenomenon that has re…
We study the fully nonlinear dynamics of black hole spontaneous scalarizations in Einstein-Maxwell scalar theory with coupling function $f(ϕ)=e^{-bϕ^{2}}$, which can transform usual Reissner-Nordström Anti-de Sitter (RN-AdS) black holes into hairy black holes. Fixing the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner mass of the system, the initial scalar perturbation will destroy the original RN-AdS black hole and turn it into a hairy black hole provided that the constant $-b$ in the coupling function and the charge of the original black hole are sufficiently large, while the cosmological constant is small enough. In…
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 instability of the scalar field around the corresponding general relativity solution. We thus perform the linear stability analysis of the scalar field about general relativity solutions and highlight a crucial difference between a spherically symmetric profile and a planar symmetric profile. We clarify that the critical value for the instability is sensitive to …
Spontaneous scalarization of black holes in scalar-Gauss-Bonnet (sGB) gravity is a very interesting phenomenon allowing black holes to circumvent the no-hair theorem and acquire scalar hair while leaving the weak field regime of the theory practically unaltered. It was recently shown that if we allow for a different form of the coupling between the scalar field and the Gauss-Bonnet invariant, a new type of scalarization is possible beyond the standard one that can be excited only nonlinearly. In this case the spectrum of black hole solutions can be more complicated, naturally opening the quest…
In this paper, we study the spontaneous scalarization of an extended, self-gravitating system which is static, cylindrically symmetric and possesses electromagnetic fields. We demonstrate that a real massive scalar field condenses on this Melvin magnetic universe solution when introducing a non-minimal coupling between the scalar field and (a) the magnetic field and (b) the curvature of the space-time, respectively. We find that in both cases, the solutions exist on a finite interval of the coupling constant and that solutions with a number of nodes $k$ in the scalar field exist. For case (a) …
We present spontaneous scalarization of charged black holes (BHs) which is induced by the coupling of the scalar field to the electromagnetic field strength and the double-dual Riemann tensor $L^{μναβ}F_{μν}F_{αβ}$ in a scalar-vector-tensor theory. In our model, the scalarization can be realized under the curved background with a non-trivial electromagnetic field, such as Reissner-Nordstr$\ddot{\rm o}$m Black Holes (RN BHs). Firstly, we investigate the stability of the constant scalar field around RN BHs in the model, and show that the scalar field can suffer a tachyonic instability. Secondly,…
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 the encounter of negative-energy densities at several star places as measured by a static observer. Here we argue that the negativeness of such densities is not generic of scalar tensor theories of gravity (STT). We support this conclusion by numerical results within a class of STT and by using three realistic models of dense matter. However, we show that t…
We investigate the possibility of spontaneous scalarization of static, spherically symmetric, and asymptotically flat black holes (BHs) in the Horndeski theory. Spontaneous scalarization of BHs is a phenomenon that the scalar field spontaneously obtains a nontrivial profile in the vicinity of the event horizon via the nonminimal couplings and eventually the BH possesses a scalar charge. In the theory in which spontaneous scalarization takes place, the Schwarzschild solution with a trivial profile of the scalar field exhibits a tachyonic instability in the vicinity of the event horizon, and evo…
We propose a new scalar-tensor model which induces significant deviation from general relativity inside dense objects like neutron stars, while passing solar-system and terrestrial experiments, extending a model proposed by Damour and Esposito-Farese. Unlike their model, we employ a massive scalar field dubbed asymmetron so that it not only realizes proper cosmic evolution but also can account for the cold dark matter. In our model, asymmetron undergoes spontaneous scalarization inside dense objects, which results in reduction of the gravitational constant by a factor of order unity. This sugg…
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 transition in the strong-field regime; the detection of such a new phase would constitute a smoking-gun for corrections to General Relativity at the classical level. Several classes of modified gravity predict the existence of such a transition - known as spontaneous scalarization - associated with the spontaneous symmetry breaking of a scalar field near a co…
We holographically investigate the scalarization in the Einstein-Scalar-Gauss-Bonnet gravity with a negative cosmological constant. We find that instability exists for both Schwarzschild-AdS and Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS black holes with planar horizons when we have proper interactions between the scalar field and the Gauss-Bonnet curvature corrections. We relate such instability to possible holographic scalarization and construct the corresponding hairy black hole solutions in the presence of the cosmological constant. Employing the holographic principle we expect that such bulk scalarization co…
Scalar-tensor theories of gravity are known to allow significant deviations from general relativity through various astrophysical phenomena. In this paper, we formulate a scalar-connection gravity by setting up scalars and connection configurations instead of metric. Since the matter sector is not straightforward to conceive without a metric, we invoke cosmological fluids in terms of their one-form velocity in the volume element of the invariant action. This leads to gravitational equations with a perfect fluid source and a generated metric, which are expected to produce reasonable deviations …
Spontaneous Scalarization of Brane Black Holes: Quantum-Enhanced Tachyonic Instabilities
Institute of Quantum Physics, School of Physics, Central South University（中南大学物理学院量子物理研究所）；Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院高能物理研究所）；School of Physics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学物理学院）；School of Physics, Xi’an Jiaotong University（西安交通大学物理学院）
Critical phenomenon inside asymptotically flat black holes with spontaneous scalarization
Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, UCAS（杭州高等研究院，中国科学院大学）；Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院理论物理研究所）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；International Centre for Theoretical Physics Asia-Pacific, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（亚洲太平洋理论物理中心，中国科学院大学）
Motivated by constant-G theory, we introduce a one-parameter family of scalar-tensor theories as an extension of constant-G theory in which the conformal symmetry is a cosmological attractor. Since the model has the coupling function of negative curvature, we expect spontaneous scalarization occurs and the parameter is constrained by pulsar-timing measurements. Modeling neutron stars with realistic equation of states, we study the structure of neutron stars and calculate the effective scalar coupling with the neutron star in these theories. We find that within the parameter region where the ob…
For massless scalar fields, a relation $Δ_{n}=\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}π$ for $n\rightarrow \infty$ was observed in the scalar-Gauss-Bonnet theory. In the present paper, we extend the discussion by including a nonzero scalar field mass. For massive scalar fields, we show that the relation $Δ_{n}=\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}π$ for $n\rightarrow \infty$ still holds. We demonstrate this relation with both analytical and numerical methods. The analytical analysis implies that this relation may be a very universal behavior.
We discuss the Damour--Esposito-Farèse model of gravity, which predicts the spontaneous scalarization of neutron stars in a certain range of parameter space. In the cosmological setup, the scalar field responsible for scalarization is subject to a tachyonic instability during inflation and the matter domination stage, resulting in a large value of the field today. This value feeds into the PPN parameters, which turn out to be in gross conflict with the Solar system measurements. We modify the original Damour--Esposito-Farèse model by coupling the scalar to the inflaton field. This coupling act…
We study the dynamics of black holes in Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet theories that exhibit spontaneous black hole scalarization using recently introduced methods for solving the full, non-perturbative equations of motion. For one sign of the coupling parameter, non-spinning vacuum black holes are unstable to developing scalar hair, while for the other, instability only sets in for black holes with sufficiently large spin. We study scalarization in both cases, demonstrating that there is a range of parameter space where the theory maintains hyperbolic evolution and for which the instability sat…
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 threshold. We recently pointed out that, if the scalar exhibits some additional coupling to matter, it could give rise to significantly different microphysics in these environments. In this work we study, at the non-perturbative level, a toy model in which the photon is given a large mass when spontaneous scalarization occurs. Our results demonstrate clearly the eff…
It has recently been demonstrated that charged black holes can support spatially regular matter configurations made of massless scalar fields which are non-minimally coupled to the electromagnetic field of the charged spacetime. Intriguingly, using numerical techniques, it has been revealed that the resonant spectra of the composed charged-black-hole-nonminimally-coupled-scalar-field configurations are characterized by charge-dependent discrete scalarization bands $α\in\{[α^{-}_{n}({\bar Q}),α^{+}_{n}({\bar Q}]\}_{n=0}^{n=\infty}$, where $α$ is the dimensionless coupling constant of the theory…
We study static, spherically symmetric and electrically charged black hole solutions in a quadratic Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet gravity model. Very similar to the uncharged case, black holes undergo spontaneous scalarization for sufficiently large scalar-tensor coupling $γ$ - a phenomenon attributed to a tachyonic instability of the scalar field system. While in the uncharged case, this effect is only possible for positive values of $γ$, we show that for sufficiently large values of the electric charge $Q$ two independent domains of existence in the $γ$-$Q$-plane appear: one for positive $γ$ …
The canonical scalar-tensor theory model which exhibits spontaneous scalarization in the strong-gravity regime of neutron stars has long been known to predict a cosmological evolution for the scalar field which generically results in severe violations of present-day Solar System constraints on deviations from general relativity. We study if this tension can be alleviated by generalizing this model to include a disformal coupling between the scalar field $φ$ and matter, where the Jordan frame metric ${\tilde g}_{μν}$ is related to the Einstein frame one $g_{μν}$ by ${\tilde g}_{μν}=A(φ)^2 (g_{μ…
As it became well known in the past years, Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet (EsGB) theories evade no-hair theorems and allow for scalarized compact objects including black holes (BH). The coupling function that defines the theory is the main character in the process and nature of scalarization. With the right choice, the theory becomes an extension of general relativity (GR) in the sense any solution to the GR field equations remains a solution in the EsGB theory, but it can destabilize if a certain threshold value of the spacetime curvature is exceeded. Thus BHs can spontaneously scalarized. The …
