May Negative Mass Objects exist in the sky?

TL;DR

Investigates whether negative-mass objects (NMOs) can exist as effective gravitational phenomena. It demonstrates NMOs can arise in a system with a positive mass, a negative-pressure cosmological fluid, and a negative cosmological constant, and provides explicit realizations in two-scalar and scalar-Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity. The work analyzes photon and massive-particle geodesics, revealing repulsive photon deflection, possible bound states with a positive mass object, and scenarios including a vanishing ADM mass, with discussions of observational signatures. It offers a framework for detecting NMOs through lensing and energy-flow signatures while acknowledging the need for a full quantum-gravity treatment in the long term.

Abstract

We conjecture the possibility of negative mass objects (NMOs) existing in the sky. It is shown that they may not be so exotic as usually expected. We show that NMOs appear as solutions of standard gravitational equations if we consider the system of a compact positive mass object, cosmological fluid and negative cosmological constant. We also construct models which generate such NMOs as solutions within the two-scalar theory and scalar-Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity inspired by string theory. The orbits of the photon and massive particles are investigated in the background, where there is a negative mass object which realises a kind of effective anti-gravity. It is explicitly found that the bound system consisting of a positive mass object and a negative mass object can be formed in spite that a positive mass object suffers the repulsive force from the NMO. The possibility that such exotic objects might be observed is discussed. A simple conjecture about their possible masses is made, too. As an even more exotic object, we consider a non-trivial object with vanishing mass and investigate its properties.