Can modified gravity prevent the gravitational collapse to black hole?

TL;DR

This paper explores how extended gravity theories can prevent the gravitational collapse of massive stars into black holes, challenging the predictions of standard general relativity.

Contribution

It demonstrates that modified gravity theories can produce stable neutron stars with arbitrarily high baryon number, unlike in standard GR.

Findings

Stable neutron stars with high baryon number are possible in extended gravity.

Standard GR predictions of inevitable collapse are not valid in the modified theory.

The specific extended gravity model allows for arbitrarily large neutron stars.

Abstract

It is shown that the theoretical arguments for the unavoidable collapse of massive stars, which are valid within standard general relativity, are not valid in extended gravity. In particular a calculation is reported of neutron stars within a theory obtained from an Einstein-Hilbert action involving a function of $R^{2}-1/2R_{\mu \nu}R^{\mu \nu}$ added to the Ricci scalar $R$. The calculation suggests that within that theory there are stable neutron stars with arbitrarily high baryon number.