Artículos de revistas
Awaking the Vacuum in Relativistic Stars
Fecha
2010Registro en:
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, v.105, n.15, 2010
0031-9007
10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.151102
Autor
LIMA, William C. C.
MATSAS, George E. A.
VANZELLA,Daniel Augusto Turolla
Institución
Resumen
Void of any inherent structure in classical physics, the vacuum has revealed to be incredibly crowded with all sorts of processes in relativistic quantum physics. Yet, its direct effects are usually so subtle that its structure remains almost as evasive as in classical physics. Here, in contrast, we report on the discovery of a novel effect according to which the vacuum is compelled to play an unexpected central role in an astrophysical context. We show that the formation of relativistic stars may lead the vacuum energy density of a quantum field to an exponential growth. The vacuum-driven evolution which would then follow may lead to unexpected implications for astrophysics, while the observation of stable neutron-star configurations may teach us much on the field content of our Universe.