The Gravitational Demise of Cold Degenerate Stars

Abstract

We consider the long term fate and evolution of cold degenerate stars under the action of gravity alone. Although such stars cannot emit radiation through the Hawking mechanism, the wave function of the star will contain a small admixture of black hole states. These black hole states will emit radiation and hence the star can lose its mass energy in the long term. We discuss the allowed range of possible degenerate stellar evolution within this framework.