Minimizers for the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory of neutron stars and white dwarfs

Abstract

We prove the existence of minimizers for Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) energy functionals with attractive two-body interactions given by Newtonian gravity. This class of HFB functionals serves as a model problem for self-gravitating relativistic Fermi systems, which are found in neutron stars and white dwarfs. Furthermore, we derive some fundamental properties of HFB minimizers such as a decay estimate for the minimizing density. A decisive feature of the HFB model in gravitational physics is its failure of weak lower semicontinuity. This fact essentially complicates the analysis compared to the well-studied Hartree-Fock theories in atomic physics