Non-relativistic stellar structure in the Fierz--Pauli theory and generic linear massive gravity

Abstract

We study the structure of static spherical stars composed of non-relativistic matter in linear massive gravity with or without the Fierz-Pauli (FP) tuning. Adopting a polytropic equation of state, we construct master differential equations for the stellar profile function, which is fourth order in the FP theory or sixth order in generic non-FP theories, where the difference in the differential order reflects the presence of a ghost spin-0 graviton in the latter. In both cases, even when the spin-0 ghost is present, we find exact solutions with finite radius for the polytropic indices n = 0 and 1. Analyzing the dependences of the stellar radius, mass, and Yukawa charge on the graviton masses, we observe that a discontinuous behavior arises in the massless limit of the FP theory similarly to the van Dam-Veltman-Zakharov discontinuity, while it is absent in non-FP theories. We discuss rough observational constraints on the graviton masses.