An upper limit to the lifetime of stellar remnants from gravitational pair production

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Falcke, Heino, Wondrak, Michael F., van Suijlekom, Walter D.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866913840160047104
author Falcke, Heino
Wondrak, Michael F.
van Suijlekom, Walter D.
author_facet Falcke, Heino
Wondrak, Michael F.
van Suijlekom, Walter D.
contents Black holes are assumed to decay via Hawking radiation. Recently we found evidence that spacetime curvature alone without the need for an event horizon leads to black hole evaporation. Here we investigate the evaporation rate and decay time of a non-rotating star of constant density due to spacetime curvature-induced pair production and apply this to compact stellar remnants such as neutron stars and white dwarfs. We calculate the creation of virtual pairs of massless scalar particles in spherically symmetric asymptotically flat curved spacetimes. This calculation is based on covariant perturbation theory with the quantum field representing, e.g.,\ gravitons or photons. We find that in this picture the evaporation timescale, $τ$, of massive objects scales with the average mass density, $ρ$, as $τ\proptoρ^{-3/2}$. The maximum age of neutron stars, $τ\sim 10^{68}\,\text{yr}$, is comparable to that of low-mass stellar black holes. White dwarfs, supermassive black holes, and dark matter supercluster halos evaporate on longer, but also finite timescales. Neutron stars and white dwarfs decay similarly to black holes, ending in an explosive event when they become unstable. This sets a general upper limit for the lifetime of matter in the universe, which in general is much longer than the Hubble--Lemaître time, although primordial objects with densities above $ρ_\text{max} \approx 3\times 10^{53}\,\text{g/}\text{cm}^3$ should have dissolved by now. As a consequence, fossil stellar remnants from a previous universe could be present in our current universe only if the recurrence time of star forming universes is smaller than about $\sim 10^{68}\,\text{years}$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_14734
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An upper limit to the lifetime of stellar remnants from gravitational pair production
Falcke, Heino
Wondrak, Michael F.
van Suijlekom, Walter D.
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Theory
Black holes are assumed to decay via Hawking radiation. Recently we found evidence that spacetime curvature alone without the need for an event horizon leads to black hole evaporation. Here we investigate the evaporation rate and decay time of a non-rotating star of constant density due to spacetime curvature-induced pair production and apply this to compact stellar remnants such as neutron stars and white dwarfs. We calculate the creation of virtual pairs of massless scalar particles in spherically symmetric asymptotically flat curved spacetimes. This calculation is based on covariant perturbation theory with the quantum field representing, e.g.,\ gravitons or photons. We find that in this picture the evaporation timescale, $τ$, of massive objects scales with the average mass density, $ρ$, as $τ\proptoρ^{-3/2}$. The maximum age of neutron stars, $τ\sim 10^{68}\,\text{yr}$, is comparable to that of low-mass stellar black holes. White dwarfs, supermassive black holes, and dark matter supercluster halos evaporate on longer, but also finite timescales. Neutron stars and white dwarfs decay similarly to black holes, ending in an explosive event when they become unstable. This sets a general upper limit for the lifetime of matter in the universe, which in general is much longer than the Hubble--Lemaître time, although primordial objects with densities above $ρ_\text{max} \approx 3\times 10^{53}\,\text{g/}\text{cm}^3$ should have dissolved by now. As a consequence, fossil stellar remnants from a previous universe could be present in our current universe only if the recurrence time of star forming universes is smaller than about $\sim 10^{68}\,\text{years}$.
title An upper limit to the lifetime of stellar remnants from gravitational pair production
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.14734