Eur. Phys. J. C (2016) 76: 337
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-016-4177-7

Regular Article - Theoretical Physics

Constraints on the braneworld from compact stars

¹ ISEL, Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, Rua Conselheiro Emídio Navarro, 1959-007, Lisboa, Portugal
² Departamento de Física, Centro de Física Teórica de Partículas, CFTP, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Avenida Rovisco Pais, 1049-001, Lisboa, Portugal
³ Departamento de Física General, Facultad de Física, Universidad de la Habana, 10400, La Habana, Cuba
⁴ Instituto de Cibernética, Matemática y Física (ICIMAF), 10400, La Habana, Cuba
⁵ Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apartado Postal 70-543, 04510, Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico

^* e-mail: ricardo.felipe@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Received: 9 March 2016
Accepted: 6 June 2016
Published online: 20 June 2016

Abstract

According to the braneworld idea, ordinary matter is confined on a three-dimensional space (brane) that is embedded in a higher-dimensional space-time where gravity propagates. In this work, after reviewing the limits coming from general relativity, finiteness of pressure and causality on the brane, we derive observational constraints on the braneworld parameters from the existence of stable compact stars. The analysis is carried out by solving numerically the brane-modified Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff equations, using different representative equations of state to describe matter in the star interior. The cases of normal dense matter, pure quark matter and hybrid matter are considered.