Gravitational vacuum condensate stars
- *Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208; and †Theoretical Division, T-8, Los Alamos National Laboratory, MS B285, Los Alamos, NM 87545
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Communicated by Yakir Aharonov, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, May 6, 2004 (received for review January 20, 2004)
Abstract
A new final state of gravitational collapse is proposed. By extending the concept of Bose–Einstein condensation to gravitational
systems, a cold, dark, compact object with an interior de Sitter condensate pv = -ρv and an exterior Schwarzschild geometry of arbitrary total mass M is constructed. These regions are separated by a shell with a small but finite proper thickness ℓ of fluid with equation
of state p = +ρ, replacing both the Schwarzschild and de Sitter classical horizons. The new solution has no singularities, no event horizons,
and a global time. Its entropy is maximized under small fluctuations and is given by the standard hydrodynamic entropy of
the thin shell, which is of the order k
BℓMc/
, instead of the Bekenstein–Hawking entropy formula, S
BH = 4πk
B
GM2/
c. Hence, unlike black holes, the new solution is thermodynamically stable and has no information paradox.
Footnotes
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↵ ‡ To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: emil{at}lanl.gov.
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Abbreviation: GBEC, gravitational Bose–Einstein condensate.
- Copyright © 2004, The National Academy of Sciences
