Gravitational phase transition of fermionic matter in a general-relativistic framework

Abstract

The Thomas-Fermi model at nite temperature is extended to describe a system of self-gravitating weakly interacting massive fermions in a general-relativistic framework. The existence and properties of the gravitational phase transition in this model are investigated numerically. It is shown that, by cooling a nondegenerate gas of weakly interacting massive fermions below some critical temperature, a condensed phase emerges, consisting of quasidegenerate fermion stars. For fermion masses of 10 to 25 keV, these fermion stars may very well provide an alternative explanation for the supermassive compact dark objects that are observed at galactic centers.