2021/04/30 by Sebastian Garcia-Saenz, Sebastián García-Sáenz, Aaron Held +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Black hole (networking) #Classical mechanics #Cosmology #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark energy #Dark matter #Field (mathematics) #General relativity #Geometry #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Stars #Tensor (intrinsic definition) #Theoretical physics #Vector field #gr-qc #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.127.131104
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 131104 (2021) · main text has been updated to agree with the published version
openalex publication_date 2021/09/23 · arxiv created 2021/10/14 · arxiv updated 2021/10/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We demonstrate that black holes and stars in general relativity can be destabilized by perturbations of nonminimally coupled vector fields. Focusing on static and spherically symmetric backgrounds, our analysis shows that black holes with sufficiently small mass and stars with sufficiently high densities are subject to ghost- or gradient-type instabilities. This holds for a large class of Einstein-Proca theories with nonminimal couplings, including generalized Proca models that have sparked attention for their potential role in cosmology and astrophysics. The stability criteria translate into bounds of relevance for low-scale theories of dark energy and for ultralight dark matter scenarios.