Gravastar solutions with continuous pressures and equation of state

We study the gravitational vacuum star (gravastar) configuration as proposed by Cattoen et al (2005 Class. Quantum Grav. 22 4189) in a model where the interior de Sitter spacetime segment is continuously extended to the exterior Schwarzschild spacetime. The multilayered structure of Mazur and Mottola (2001 Preprint gr-qc/0109035, 2003 Proc. 6th Workshop on Quantum Field Theory Under the Influence of External Conditions (Oklahoma) (Princeton, NJ: Rinton), Preprint gr-qc/0405111 (2004 Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. 111 9545) is replaced by a continuous stress–energy tensor at the price of introducing anisotropy in the (fluid) model of the gravastar. Either with an ansatz for the equation of state connecting the radial pr and tangential pt pressure or with a calculated equation of state with non-homogeneous energy/fluid density, solutions are obtained which in all aspects satisfy the conditions expected for an anisotropic gravastar (Cattoen et al 2005 Class. Quantum Grav. 22 4189). Certain energy conditions have been shown to be obeyed and a polytropic equation of state has been derived. Stability of the solution with respect to possible axial perturbation is shown to hold.