A stealth defect of spacetime

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel Skyrmion spacetime defect called a 'stealth defect' that has positive energy density but no detectable gravitational mass at large distances, especially when matter fields are massive.

Contribution

It presents a new class of soliton solutions in Skyrme models with matter fields that exhibit zero asymptotic gravitational mass despite having positive energy density.

Findings

The stealth defect has no long-range gravitational fields.

Adding mass to matter fields results in a defect with no detectable gravitational mass.

The solution is a novel soliton with unique gravitational properties.

Abstract

We discuss a special type of Skyrmion spacetime-defect solution, which has a positive energy density of the matter fields but a vanishing asymptotic gravitational mass. With a mass term for the matter field added to the action (corresponding to massive "pions" in the Skyrme model), this particular soliton-type solution has no long-range fields and can appropriately be called a "stealth defect."