Buchdahl compactness limit for a pure Lovelock static fluid star

Abstract

We obtain the Buchdahl compactness limit for a pure Lovelock static fluid star and verify that the limit following from the uniform density Schwarzschild's interior solution, which is universal irrespective of the gravitational theory (Einstein or Lovelock), is true in general. In terms of surface potential $\Phi(r)$, it means at the surface of the star $r=r_{0}$, $\Phi(r_{0}) < 2N(d-N-1)/(d-1)^2$ where $d$, $N$ respectively indicate spacetime dimensions and Lovelock order. For a given $N$, $\Phi(r_{0})$ is maximum for $d=2N+2$ while it is always $4/9$, Buchdahl's limit, for $d=3N+1$. It is also remarkable that for $N=1$ Einstein gravity, or for pure Lovelock in $d=3N+1$, Buchdahl's limit is equivalent to the criteria that gravitational field energy exterior to the star is less than half its gravitational mass, having no reference to the interior at all.