Constructing Neutron Stars with a Gravitational Higgs Mechanism

TL;DR

This paper explores a Higgs-like mechanism in neutron stars where spontaneous scalarization, a phase transition in scalar-tensor theories, leads to a large photon mass, significantly affecting the star's microphysics.

Contribution

It introduces a toy model demonstrating how spontaneous scalarization can act as a Higgs-like mechanism in neutron stars, affecting photon mass and microphysics.

Findings

Spontaneous scalarization can give photons a large mass in neutron stars.

The Higgs-like mechanism significantly alters neutron star microphysics.

The model demonstrates non-perturbative effects in scalar-tensor theories.

Abstract

In scalar-tensor theories, spontaneous scalarization is a phase transition that can occur in ultra-dense environments such as neutron stars. The scalar field develops a non-trivial configuration once the stars exceeds a compactness threshold. We recently pointed out that, if the scalar exhibits some additional coupling to matter, it could give rise to significantly different microphysics in these environments. In this work we study, at the non-perturbative level, a toy model in which the photon is given a large mass when spontaneous scalarization occurs. Our results demonstrate clearly the effectiveness of spontaneous scalarization as a Higgs-like mechanism in neutron stars.