Vacuum revealed: The final state of vacuum instabilities in compact stars

Quantum fields in compact stars can be amplified due to a semiclassical instability, which may affect the structure of relativistic stars. We show that a classical counterpart to this instability occurs in exactly the same region of the parameter space. For negative coupling parameter xi, the instability is related to the well-known "spontaneous scalarization'' effect. The plausible end state is a static, asymptotically flat configuration with a nonzero scalar field, which is compatible with weak-field experiments and energetically favored over stellar solutions in general relativity. For xi > 0 the new configurations are energetically disfavored, and the end state of the instability remains an open issue. The vacuum instability may lead to new experimental opportunities to probe the nature of vacuum energy via astrophysical observations of compact stars.