No Arabic abstract
The static, apparently cylindrically symmetric vacuum solution of Linet and Tian for the case of a positive cosmological constant $Lambda$ is shown to have toroidal symmetry and, besides $Lambda$, to include three arbitrary parameters. It possesses two curvature singularities, of which one can be removed by matching it across a toroidal surface to a corresponding region of the dust-filled Einstein static universe. In four dimensions, this clarifies the geometrical properties, the coordinate ranges and the meaning of the parameters in this solution. Some other properties and limiting cases of this space-time are described. Its generalisation to any higher number of dimensions is also explicitly given.
We investigate the geodesics kinematics and dynamics in the Linet-Tian metric with Lambda<0 and compare with the results for the Levi-Civita metric, when Lambda=0. This is used to derive new stability results about the geodesics dynamics in static vacuum cylindrically symmetric spacetimes with respect to the introduction of Lambda<0. In particular, we find that increasing |Lambda| always increases the minimum and maximum radial distances to the axis of any spatially confined planar null geodesic. Furthermore, we show that, in some cases, the inclusion of any Lambda<0 breaks the geodesics orbit confinement of the Lambda=0 metric, for both planar and non-planar null geodesics, which are therefore unstable. Using the full system of geodesics equations, we provide numerical examples which illustrate our results.
We analyse the geodesics dynamics in cylindrically symmetric vacuum spacetimes with Lambda>0 and compare it to the Lambda=0 and Lambda<0 cases. When Lambda>0 there are two singularities in the metric which brings new qualitative features to the dynamics. We find that Lambda=0 planar timelike confined geodesics are unstable against the introduction of a sufficiently large Lambda, in the sense that the bounded orbits become unbounded. In turn, any non-planar radially bounded geodesics are stable for any positive Lambda. We construct global non-singular static vacuum spacetimes in cylindrical symmetry with Lambda>0 by matching the Linet-Tian metric with two appropriate sources.
We investigate the matching, across cylindrical surfaces, of static cylindrically symmetric conformally flat spacetimes with a cosmological constant $Lambda$, satisfying regularity conditions at the axis, to an exterior Linet-Tian spacetime. We prove that for $Lambdaleq 0$ such matching is impossible. On the other hand, we show through simple examples that the matching is possible for $Lambda>0$. We suggest a physical argument that might explain these results.
A scalar field non-minimally coupled to certain geometric [or matter] invariants which are sourced by [electro]vacuum black holes (BHs) may spontaneously grow around the latter, due to a tachyonic instability. This process is expected to lead to a new, dynamically preferred, equilibrium state: a scalarised BH. The most studied geometric [matter] source term for such spontaneous BH scalarisation is the Gauss-Bonnet quadratic curvature [Maxwell invariant]. This phenomenon has been mostly analysed for asymptotically flat spacetimes. Here we consider the impact of a positive cosmological constant, which introduces a cosmological horizon. The cosmological constant does not change the local conditions on the scalar coupling for a tachyonic instability of the scalar-free BHs to emerge. But it leaves a significant imprint on the possible new scalarised BHs. It is shown that no scalarised BH solutions exist, under a smoothness assumption, if the scalar field is confined between the BH and cosmological horizons. Admitting the scalar field can extend beyond the cosmological horizon, we construct new scalarised BHs. These are asymptotically de Sitter in the (matter) Einstein-Maxwell-scalar model, with only mild difference with respect to their asymptotically flat counterparts. But in the (geometric) extended-scalar-tensor-Gauss-Bonnet-scalar model, they have necessarily non-standard asymptotics, as the tachyonic instability dominates in the far field. This interpretation is supported by the analysis of a test tachyon on a de Sitter background.
Normally one thinks of the observed cosmological constant as being so small that it can be utterly neglected on typical astrophysical scales, only affecting extremely large-scale cosmology at Gigaparsec scales. Indeed, in those situations where the cosmological constant only has a quantitative influence on the physics, a separation of scales argument guarantees the effect is indeed negligible. The exception to this argument arises when the presence of a cosmological constant qualitatively changes the physics. One example of this phenomenon is the existence of outermost stable circular orbits (OSCOs) in the presence of a positive cosmological constant. Remarkably the size of these OSCOs are of a magnitude to be astrophysically interesting. For instance: for galactic masses the OSCOs are of order the inter-galactic spacing, for galaxy cluster masses the OSCOs are of order the size of the cluster.