Self-gravitating Scalar Field Research Articles

Reply to comment on ‘Late-time tails of a self-gravitating massless scalar field, revisited’

We respond to Szpak's comment (2009 Class. Quantum Grav. 26 248001) on our paper (2009 Class. Quantum Grav. 26 175006).

Selection criteria for two-parameter solutions to scalar-tensor gravity

We make a systematic investigation of the generic properties of static, spherically symmetric, asymptotically flat solutions to the field equations describing gravity minimally coupled to a nonlinear self-gravitating real scalar field. Seven corollaries and a theorem on selection criteria for two- and one-parametric solutions are proven and conditions for obtaining particle-like solution, black holes or naked singularities are derived. A series of exact solutions in closed forms describing different black holes, naked singularities and particle-like solutions are provided.

PASSAGE OF RADIATION THROUGH WORMHOLES

We investigate numerically the process of the passage of a radiation pulse through a wormhole and the subsequent evolution of the wormhole that is caused by the gravitational action of this pulse. The initial static wormhole is modeled by a spherically symmetrical solution with zero mass. The radiation pulses are modeled by spherically symmetrical shells of self-gravitating massless scalar fields. We demonstrate that the compact signal propagates through the wormhole and investigate the dynamics of the fields in this process for both cases: collapse of the wormhole into the black hole and for the expanding wormhole.

Scalar-field cosmological and collapse models with general self-interaction potentials

We present the results of the investigation of a wide class of self-interacting, self-gravitating homogeneous scalar fields models, characterized by quite general conditions on the scalar field potential, and including both asymptotically polynomial and exponential behaviors. We show that the generic evolution is always divergent in a finite time, and this result is used to construct cosmological models as well as radiating collapsing star models of the Vaidya type – for the latter it turns out that black holes are generically formed.

Marginally Trapped Tubes Generated from Nonlinear Scalar Field Initial Data

We show that the maximal future development of asymptotically flat spherically symmetric black hole initial data for a self-gravitating nonlinear scalar field, also called a Higgs field, contains a connected, achronal marginally trapped tube which is asymptotic to the event horizon of the black hole, provided the initial data is sufficiently small and decays like O(r^{-1/2}), and the potential function V is nonnegative with bounded second derivative. This result can be loosely interpreted as a statement about the stability of `nice' asymptotic behavior of marginally trapped tubes under certain small perturbations of Schwarzschild.

Late-time tails of a self-gravitating massless scalar field, revisited

We discuss the nonlinear origin of the power-law tail in the long-time evolution of a spherically symmetric self-gravitating massless scalar field in even-dimensional spacetimes. Using the third-order perturbation method, we derive explicit expressions for the tail (the decay rate and the amplitude) for solutions starting from small initial data, and we verify this prediction via numerical integration of the Einstein-scalar field equations in four and six dimensions. Our results show that the coincidence of decay rates of linear and nonlinear tails in four dimensions (which has misguided some tail hunters in the past) is in a sense accidental and does not hold in higher dimensions.

Mass inflation in Brans-Dicke gravity

A detailed nonlinear analysis of the internal structure of spherical, charged black holes that are accreting scalar matter is performed in the framework of the Brans-Dicke theory of gravity. We choose the lowest value of the Brans-Dicke parameter that is compatible with observational constraints. First, the homogeneous approximation is used. It indicates that mass inflation occurs and that the variations of the Brans-Dicke scalar inside the black hole, which could in principle be large in the absence of mass inflation, become small when mass inflation does occur. Then, a full nonlinear numerical study of the black hole interior perturbed by a self-gravitating massless uncharged scalar field is performed. We use an algorithm with adaptive mesh refinement capabilities. In this way, the changes in the internal structure of the black hole caused by mass inflation are determined, as well as the induced variations of the Brans-Dicke scalar, confirming, qualitatively, the indications given by the homogeneous approximation.

Black Hole Formation from a Complete Regular Past

An open problem in general relativity has been to construct an asymptotically flat solution to a reasonable Einstein-matter system containing a black hole in the future and yet past-causally geodesically complete, in particular, containing no white holes. We give such an example in this paper--in fact, a family of such examples, stable in a suitable sense--for the case of a self-gravitating scalar field.

Singularity formation in general relativistic dynamics of homogeneous scalar fields

Collapsing dynamics of a wide class of self-interacting, self-gravitating homogeneous scalar field models is analyzed. The assumptions made on the potential satisfy some general conditions allowing to show that the generic evolution is divergent in a finite time. Combining results shown here with the ones from [R. Giambó, F. Giannoni, G. Magli, J. Math. Phys. 49 (2008) 042504], dealing with sub-exponential growing potentials, allows us to obtain the same results of singularity formation for more general potentials. Moreover it turns out that these models can be completed to find radiating collapsing star models of the Vaidya type, where blackholes are generically formed.

Scalar fields: at the threshold of astrophysics

In this manuscript the potential existence of self-gravitating complex scalar field configurations is explored. Stable boson stars are presented as potential black hole candidates, and the strengths and weaknesses of such idea are described. On the other hand, Newtonian boson systems are also studied because they are the bricks of the structure within the scalar field dark matter model or the Bose condensate dark matter; the collapse of density fluctuations is described; also the interaction between two structures is shown to allow solitonic behavior, which in turn allows the formation of ripples of dark matter. The processes related to potential observations are also discussed.

Higher-dimensional AdS waves andppwaves with conformally related sources

AdS waves and pp-waves can only be supported by pure radiation fields, for which the only nonvanishing component of the energy-momentum tensor is the energy density along the retarded time. We show that the nonminimal coupling of self-gravitating scalar fields to the higher-dimensional versions of these exact gravitational waves can be done consistently. In both cases, the resulting pure radiation constraints completely fix the scalar field dependence and the form of the allowed self-interactions. More significantly, we establish that the two sets of pure radiation constraints are conformally related for any nonminimal coupling, in spite of the fact that the involved gravitational fields are not necessarily related. In this correspondence, the potential supporting the AdS waves emerges from the self-interaction associated to the pp-waves and a self-dual condition naturally satisfied by the pp-wave scalar fields.

Initial-boundary-value problem of the self-gravitating scalar field in the Bondi-Sachs gauge

It is shown that, in the Bondi-Sachs gauge that fixes the speed of incoming light rays to the value 1, the Einstein equations coupled to a scalar field in spherical symmetry are cast into a symmetric-hyperbolic system of equations for the scalar field, lapse and shift as fundamental variables. In this system of equations, the lapse and shift are incoming characteristic fields, and the scalar field has three components: incoming, outgoing and static. A constraint-preserving boundary condition is prescribed by imposing the projection of the Einstein equation normal to the boundary at the outer value of the radial coordinate. The boundary condition specifies one of the two incoming metric fields. The remaining incoming metric field and the incoming scalar field component need to be specified arbitrarily. Numerical simulations of the scattering of the scalar field by a black hole in the nonlinear regime are presented that illustrate interesting facts about black-hole physics and the behavior of the characteristic variables of the problem.

Late-time oscillatory behaviour for self-gravitating scalar fields

This paper investigates the late-time behaviour of certain cosmological models where oscillations play an essential role. Rigorous results are proved on the asymptotics of homogeneous and isotropic spacetimes with a linear massive scalar field as source. Various generalizations are obtained for nonlinear massive scalar fields, k-essence models and f(R) gravity. The effect of adding ordinary matter is discussed as is the case of nonlinear scalar fields whose potential has a degenerate zero.

Scalar field dark matter: Nonspherical collapse and late-time behavior

We show the evolution of nonspherically symmetric balls of a self-gravitating scalar field in the Newtonian regime or equivalently an ideal self-gravitating condensed Bose gas. In order to do so, we use a finite differencing approximation of the Schr\"odinger-Poisson (SP) system of equations with axial symmetry in cylindrical coordinates. Our results indicate: (i) that spherically symmetric ground state equilibrium configurations are stable against nonspherical perturbations and (ii) that such configurations of the SP system are late-time attractors for nonspherically symmetric initial profiles of the scalar field, which is a generalization of such behavior for spherically symmetric initial profiles. Our system and the boundary conditions used, work as a model of scalar field dark matter collapse after the turnaround point. In such case, we have found that the scalar field overdensities tolerate nonspherical contributions to the profile of the initial fluctuation.

Thick domain walls in AdS black hole spacetimes

Equations of motion for a real self-gravitating scalar field in the background of a black hole with negative cosmological constant were solved numerically. We obtain a sequence of static axisymmetric solutions representing thick domain wall cosmological black hole systems, depending on the mass of black hole, cosmological parameter and the parameter binding black hole mass with the width of the domain wall. For the case of extremal cosmological black hole the expulsion of scalar field from the black hole strongly depends on it.

Gravitational Cooling of Self‐gravitating Bose Condensates

Equilibrium configurations for a self-gravitating scalar field with self-interaction are constructed. The corresponding Schr\"odinger-Poisson (SP) system is solved using finite differences assuming spherical symmetry. It is shown that equilibrium configurations of the SP system are late-time attractor solutions for initially quite arbitrary density profiles, which relax and virialize through the emission of scalar field bursts; a process dubbed gravitational cooling. Among other potential applications, these results indicate that scalar field dark matter models (in its different flavors) tolerate the introduction of a self-interaction term in the SP equations. This study can be useful in exploring models in which dark matter in galaxies is not point-like.

Comoving Self-Gravitating Scalar Field in the Newman Penrose Formalism

The Einstein field equation, coupled to the scalar field, is studied in a spherically symmetric comoving system. The problem is translated into the language of the Newman Penrose formalism that is based on the choice of a null tetrad frame. The corresponding (tabulated) Einstein field equation, Bianchi identities and scalar field equation are explicited in terms of the Weyl and Ricci scalars and discussed. Spherical symmetry reduces the difficulties but not so far to enable to integrate the scheme in general. The main result is that static self-gravitation is possible only for massless scalar field. The static solution is determined. It depends on an arbitrary function that can be interpreted as radial coordinate. The part of the space–time solution of the problem does not contain black holes. It is remarked that in the part of the space–time not solution of the problem, light rays cannot propagate radially but admit circular orbits.

A proof of Price’s law for the collapse of a self-gravitating scalar field

A well-known open problem in general relativity, dating back to 1972, has been to prove Price's law for an appropriate model of gravitational collapse. This law postulates inverse-power decay rates for the gravitational radiation flux on the event horizon and null infinity with respect to appropriately normalized advanced and retarded time coordinates. It is intimately related both to astrophysical observations of black holes and to the fate of observers who dare cross the event horizon. In this paper, we prove a well-defined (upper bound) formulation of Price's law for the collapse of a self-gravitating scalar field with spherically symmetric initial data. We also allow the presence of an additional gravitationally coupled Maxwell field. Our results are obtained by a new mathematical technique for understanding the long-time behavior of large data solutions to the resulting coupled non-linear hyperbolic system of p.d.e.'s in 2 independent variables. The technique is based on the interaction of the conformal geometry, the celebrated red-shift effect, and local energy conservation; we feel it may be relevant for the problem of non-linear stability of the Kerr solution. When combined with previous work of the first author (gr-qc/0307013) concerning the internal structure of charged black holes, which assumed the validity of Price's law, our results can be applied to the strong cosmic censorship conjecture for the Einstein-Maxwell-real scalar field system with complete spacelike asymptotically flat spherically symmetric initial data. Under Christodoulou's C^0 formulation, the conjecture is proven to be false.

News from critical collapse: Bondi mass, tails, and quasinormal modes

We discuss critical gravitational collapse on the threshold of apparent horizon formation as a model both for the discussion of global aspects of critical collapse and for numerical studies in a compactified context. For our matter model we choose a self-gravitating massless scalar field in spherical symmetry, which has been studied extensively in the critical collapse literature. Our evolution system is based on Bondi coordinates, the mass-function is used as an evolution variable to ensure regularity at null infinity. We compute radiation quantities like the Bondi mass and news-function and find that they reflect the discretely self-similar (DSS) behavior. Surprisingly, the period of radiation at null infinity is related to the formal result for the leading quasinormal mode of a black hole with rapidly decreasing mass. Furthermore, our investigations shed some light on global versus local issues in critical collapse, and the validity and usefulness of the concept of null infinity when predicting detector signals.

NON-SINGULAR GLOBAL COSMIC STRINGS

Non-singular global cosmic strings are found in a non-linear sigma model with a potential term for a self-gravitating complex scalar field. Stationary solutions with angular momentum and possibly linear momentum are obtained by assuming an oscillatory dependence of the scalar field on t, φ and z. This dependence has an effect similar to gauging the global U(1) symmetry of the model, which is actually a Kaluza-Klein reduction from four to three spacetime dimensions. The method of analysis can be regarded as an extension of the gravito-electromagnetism formalism beyond the weak field limit.