Numerical approach to the exterior solution of spherically symmetric and static configuration in scalar-tensor theories

Abstract

We numerically examine the exterior solution of spherically symmetric and static configuration in scalar-tensor theories by using the nonminimally coupled scalar field with zero potential as our sample model. Our main purpose in this work is to fit the resulting data of the numerical solutions in the interested region by seeking for approximate analytical expressions which are weakly dependent of the parameters of a model, such as the nonminimal coupling constant in the present case. To this end, we determine the main forms of the mass and the metric functions in terms of the scalar field and their surface values. Then, we provide a function for the scalar field that contains only the mass and the radius of the configuration together with the surface and the asymptotic values of the scalar field. Therefore, we show that the exterior solution can be expressed in a form which does not depend on the parameters of a chosen model up to an order of accuracy around ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}5}$.