Cracking of general relativistic anisotropic polytropes

TL;DR

This paper investigates how small anisotropic fluctuations in pressure and energy density can cause cracking in spherical compact objects modeled by polytropic equations of state, with implications for astrophysical phenomena.

Contribution

It demonstrates that minor anisotropic perturbations can induce cracking in relativistic polytropes, expanding understanding of stability in compact astrophysical objects.

Findings

Anisotropic fluctuations can lead to cracking across various polytropic parameters

Both types of polytropes studied show susceptibility to cracking due to small perturbations

Results have potential applications in modeling astrophysical compact objects

Abstract

We discuss the effect that small fluctuations of local anisotropy of pressure, and energy density, may have on the occurrence of cracking in spherical compact objects, satisfying a polytropic equation of state. Two different kind of polytropes are considered. For both, it is shown that departures from equilibrium may lead to the appearance of cracking, for a wide range of values of the parameters defining the polytrope. Prospective applications of the obtained results, to some astrophysical scenarios, are pointed out.