Charged black holes and unusual wormholes in scalar-tensor gravity (Q2461055): Difference between revisions

In general relativity, there are solutions of the field equations which represent strong field configurations having the common feature that the curvature manifests itself in unusual global properties of space-time. Since the time when Wheeler and others gave them the names `black holes' and `wormholes' they were considered by many relativists as astrophysical objects. While black holes, which are assumed to be possible end stages of the star development, are already an object of astrophysical considerations for many years, wormholes, which connect two different ``worlds'' or two regions of the same ``world'', have only recently appeared in the focus of a more active discussion. Wheeler and colleagues had still strong criteria to be imposed on possible physical matter, i.e., on its energy-momentum tensor. These limitations led them to conclude that there is no such hole solution of the classical (i.e., not quantized) gravitation field equations. Now, since one believes in the existence of exotic energy (dark energy) the situation has changed: one particularly is ready to drop the null energy conditions, with the hope to find such solutions. One of the authors (K. A. B.) is one of the protagonists of such investigations. In the present paper, the authors consider static, spherically symmetric, electrically or/and magnetically charged configurations of a minimally coupled scalar with an arbitrary potential in general relativity. Using the inverse problem method, they obtain a four-parameter family of solutions, including those with naked singularities as well as extreme and non-extreme black-hole solutions, and they show under which conditions one arrives at a wormhole solution. Results are compared to those ones which are known in scalar-tensor theory.