2017/08/18 by Carlos A. R. Herdeiro, Alexandre M. Pombo, Eugen Radu · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #gr-qc #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2017.09.036
14 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2017/08/18 · arxiv updated 2017/10/11
The existence of localized, approximately stationary, lumps of the classical gravitational and electromagnetic field -- geons -- was conjectured more than half a century ago. If one insists on exact stationarity, topologically trivial configurations in electro-vacuum are ruled out by no-go theorems for solitons. But stationary, asymptotically flat geons found a realization in scalar-vacuum, where everywhere non-singular, localized field lumps exist, known as (scalar) boson stars. Similar geons have subsequently been found in Einstein-Dirac theory and, more recently, in Einstein-Proca theory. We identify the common conditions that allow these solutions, which may also exist for other spin fields. Moreover, we present a comparison of spherically symmetric geons for the spin 0,1/2 and 1, emphasising the mathematical similarities and clarifying the physical differences, particularly between the bosonic and fermonic cases. We clarify that for the fermionic case, Pauli's exclusion principle prevents a continuous family of solutions for a fixed field mass; rather only a discrete set exists, in contrast with the bosonic case.