Schwarzschild–Droste solution

The spherically symmetric vacuum solution to the Einstein field equation (Schwarzschild-Droste solution) is derived and associated physical phenomena derived and explained. It is shown how to obtain the Christoffel symbols by the Euler-Lagrange method, and hence the metric for the general spherically symmetric vacuum. Equations for general orbits are presented, and their solution for radial motion and for circular motion. Geodetic (de Sitter) precession is calculated exactly for circular orbits. The null geodesics (photon worldlines) are obtained, and the gravitational redshift. Emission from an accretion disc is calculated.

Exploring multi-Higgs models with softly broken large discrete symmetry groups

We develop methods to study the scalar sector of multi-Higgs models with large discrete symmetry groups that are softly broken. While in the exact symmetry limit, the model has very few parameters and can be studied analytically, proliferation of quadratic couplings in the most general softly broken case makes the analysis cumbersome. We identify two sets of soft breaking terms which play different roles: those which preserve the symmetric vacuum expectation value alignment, and the remaining terms which shift it. Focusing on alignment preserving terms, we check which structural features of the symmetric parent model are conserved and which are modified. We find remarkable examples of structural features which are inherited from the parent symmetric model and which persist even when no exact symmetry is left. The general procedure is illustrated with the example of the three-Higgs-doublet model with the softly broken symmetry group $$\Sigma (36)$$ Σ ( 36 ) .

Global electroweak symmetric vacuum

Although the Higgs potential in the Standard Model (SM) contains only a simple electroweak symmetry breaking vacuum in the small field region, additional metastable or global vacua could exist in models beyond the SM. In this paper, we study one intriguing scenario with an additional electroweak symmetric vacuum that could be the global one. For the thermal universe ending at the current metastable vacuum, the electroweak symmetry should stay non-restored at high temperatures. We realize the scenario in a model with Higgs-portal couplings to SM singlet scalars with approximately global O(N) symmetries with a large N. For a large portion of model parameter space, both the quantum and thermal tunneling rates are suppressed such that our current metastable vacuum is long-lived enough. Our scenario predicts order-one changes for the Higgs self-couplings and a large contribution to the signal of the off-shell Higgs invisible decay. It can be partly probed at the LHC Run 3 and well tested at the high luminosity LHC. We also discuss the subcritical (anti-de Sitter) bubbles from the thermal tunneling that could have a large population and interesting cosmological implications.

Hybrid Metric-Palatini Gravity: Regular Stringlike Configurations

We discuss static, cylindrically symmetric vacuum solutions of hybrid metric-Palatini gravity (HMPG), a recently proposed theory that has been shown to successfully pass the local observational tests and produce a certain progress in cosmology. We use HMPG in its well-known scalar-tensor representation. The latter coincides with general relativity containing, as a source of gravity, a conformally coupled scalar field ϕ and a self-interaction potential V(ϕ). The ϕ field can be canonical or phantom, and, accordingly, the theory splits into canonical and phantom sectors. We seek solitonic (stringlike) vacuum solutions of HMPG, that is, completely regular solutions with Minkowski metric far from the symmetry axis, with a possible angular deficit. A transition of the theory to the Einstein conformal frame is used as a tool, and many of the results apply to the general Bergmann-Wagoner-Nordtvedt class of scalar-tensor theories as well as f(R) theories of gravity. One of these results is a one-to-one correspondence between stringlike solutions in the Einstein and Jordan frames if the conformal factor that connects them is everywhere regular. An algorithm for the construction of stringlike solutions in HMPG and scalar-tensor theories is suggested, and some examples of such solutions are obtained and discussed.

Charged particle dynamics near an X-point of a non-symmetric magnetic field with closed field lines

Understanding particle drifts in a non-symmetric magnetic field is of primary interest in designing optimized stellarators in order to minimize the neoclassical radial loss of particles. Quasisymmetry and omnigeneity, two distinct properties proposed to ensure radial localization of collisionless trapped particles in stellarators, have been explored almost exclusively for magnetic fields with nested flux surfaces. In this work, we examine radial particle confinement when all field lines are closed. We then study charged particle dynamics in the special case of a non-symmetric vacuum magnetic field with closed field lines obtained recently by Weitzner & Sengupta (Phys. Plasmas, vol. 27, 2020, 022509). These magnetic fields can be used to construct magnetohydrodynamic equilibria for low pressure. Expanding in the amplitude of the non-symmetric fields, we explicitly evaluate the omnigeneity and quasisymmetry constraints. We show that the magnetic field is omnigeneous in the sense that the drift surfaces coincide with the pressure surfaces. However, it is not quasisymmetric according to the standard definitions.

On the quantum improved Schwarzschild black hole

Deriving the gravitational effective action directly from exact renormalization group is very complicated, if not impossible. Hence, to study the effects of running gravitational coupling which tends to a non-Gaussian UV fixed point (as it is supposed by the asymptotic safety conjecture), two steps are usually adopted. Cutoff identification and improvement of the gravitational coupling to the running one. As suggested in Ref. 1, a function of all independent curvature invariants seems to be the best choice for cutoff identification of gravitational quantum fluctuations in curved space–time and makes the action improvement, which saves the general covariance of theory, possible. Here, we choose Ricci tensor square for this purpose and then the equation of motion of improved gravitational action and its spherically symmetric vacuum solution are obtained. Indeed, its effect on the massive particles’ trajectory and the black hole thermodynamics is studied.

Asymptotically flat vacuum solution in modified theory of Einstein’s gravity

A number of recent observations have suggested that the Einstein’s theory of general relativity may not be the ultimate theory of gravity. The f(R) gravity model with R being the scalar curvature turns out to be one of the best bet to surpass the general relativity which explains a number of phenomena where Einstein’s theory of gravity fails. In the f(R) gravity, behaviour of the spacetime is modified as compared to that of given by the Einstein’s theory of general relativity. This theory has already been explored for understanding various compact objects such as neutron stars, white dwarfs etc. and also describing evolution of the universe. Although researchers have already found the vacuum spacetime solutions for the f(R) gravity, yet there is a caveat that the metric does have some diverging terms and hence these solutions are not asymptotically flat. We show that it is possible to have asymptotically flat spherically symmetric vacuum solution for the f(R) gravity, which is different from the Schwarzschild solution. We use this solution for explaining various bound orbits around the black hole and eventually, as an immediate application, in the spherical accretion flow around it.

An Alternative Approach to the Static Spherically Symmetric, Vacuum Global Solution to the Einstein Equations

We propose an alternative description of the Schwarzschild black hole based on the requirement that the solution is static not only outside the horizon but also inside it. As a consequence of this assumption, we are led to a change of signature implying a complex transformation of an angle variable. There is a “phase transition” on the surface R=2m, producing a change in the symmetry as we cross this surface. Some consequences of this situation on the motion of test particles are investigated.