Speaker
Description
Neutron stars (NSs) are the superdense objects with exceptionally strong gravitational fields, providing an ideal laboratory for exploring general relativity (GR) in the high-curvature regime. They also open up exciting possibilities for probing new gravitational physics beyond the established framework of GR. Thus, investigating modified theories of gravity in the context of superdense stars is both fascinating and crucial for advancing our understanding of gravitational phenomena under such extreme environments. Energy-momentum squared gravity (EMSG) is a modified theory of gravity that extends GR by including nonlinear terms that involve the energy-momentum tensor $T_{\mu\nu}$. In this study, we investigate the effect of EMSG on the curvature of NSs by using three relativistic mean-field (RMF) equations of state (EOSs) and three hadron-quark phase transition (HQPT) EOSs. This study mainly focuses on the Kretschmann ($\mathcal{K}$) and Weyl ($\mathcal{W}$) curvature scalars. We have calculated the radial variation and variation with the baryon density of the curvature scalars by varying the free parameter $\alpha$. We observed a distinct and interesting behaviour of the curvature profiles near the phase transition region for the HQPT EOSs. These signatures may help us to probe the exotic core phases inside NSs.