Relativistic structure, stability, and gravitational collapse of charged neutron stars

Journal Article · Tue Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2005 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.72.104017· OSTI ID:20711570

Ghezzi, Cristian R ^[1]

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1. Instituto de Matematica, Estatistica e Computacao Cientifica, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, Sao Paulo (Brazil)

Charged stars have the potential of becoming charged black holes or even naked singularities. We present a set of numerical solutions of the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkov equations that represents spherical charged compact stars in hydrostatic equilibrium. The stellar models obtained are evolved forward in time integrating the Einstein-Maxwell field equations. We assume an equation of state of a neutron gas at zero temperature. The charge distribution is taken as being proportional to the rest mass density distribution. The set of solutions present an unstable branch, even with charge-to-mass ratios arbitrarily close to the extremum case. We perform a direct check of the stability of the solutions under strong perturbations and for different values of the charge-to-mass ratio. The stars that are in the stable branch oscillate and do not collapse, while models in the unstable branch collapse directly to form black holes. Stars with a charge greater than or equal to the extreme value explode. When a charged star is suddenly discharged, it does not necessarily collapse to form a black hole. A nonlinear effect that gives rise to the formation of a shell of matter (in supermassive stars), is negligible in the present simulations. The results are in agreement with the third law of black hole thermodynamics and with the cosmic censorship conjecture.

• OSTI ID: 20711570
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 72, Issue 10; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.72.104017; (c) 2005 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
BLACK HOLES
CHARGE DISTRIBUTION
DISTURBANCES
EINSTEIN-MAXWELL EQUATIONS
EQUATIONS OF STATE
GRAVITATIONAL COLLAPSE
NEUTRON STARS
NEUTRONS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
REST MASS
SIMULATION
SINGULARITY
STABILITY
STAR EVOLUTION
SUPERMASSIVE STARS
THERMODYNAMICS