Stability Bounds on Compact Astrophysical Objects from Information-Entropic Measure

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel information-entropic measure called configurational entropy to analyze the stability bounds of various self-gravitating astrophysical objects, demonstrating strong correlation with traditional methods.

Contribution

It applies configurational entropy to determine stability bounds for astrophysical objects, providing a new quantitative tool that correlates well with classical perturbation results.

Findings

Configurational entropy accurately predicts stability regions within a few percent.

The method applies to Newtonian polytropes, neutron stars, and boson stars.

Critical points of configurational entropy align with traditional stability thresholds.

Abstract

We obtain bounds on the stability of various self-gravitating astrophysical objects using a new measure of shape complexity known as configurational entropy. We apply the method to Newtonian polytropes, neutron stars with an Oppenheimer-Volkoff equation of state, and to self-gravitating configurations of complex scalar field (boson stars) with different self-couplings, showing that the critical stability region of these stellar configurations obtained from traditional perturbation methods correlates well with critical points of the configurational entropy with accuracy of a few percent or better.