Quantum geodesics reflecting the internal structure of stars composed of shells

Abstract

In general relativity, an external observer cannot distinguish distinct internal structures between two spherically symmetric stars that have the same total mass M. However, when quantum corrections are taken into account, the external metrics of the stars will receive quantum corrections depending on their internal structures. In this paper, we obtain the quantum-corrected metrics at linear order in curvature for two spherically symmetric shells characterized by different internal structures: one with an empty interior and the other with N internal shells. The dependence on the internal structures in the corrected metrics tells us that geodesics on these backgrounds would be deformed according to the internal structures. We conduct numerical computations to find out the angle of geodesic precession and show that the presence of internal structures amplifies the precession angle reflecting the discrepancy between the radial and orbital periods within the geodesic orbit. The amount of the precession angle increases monotonically as the number of internal shells increases and it eventually converges to a certain value for N ⟶ ∞.