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Stability of neutron stars in Horndeski theories with Gauss-Bonnet couplings

In Horndeski theories containing a scalar coupling with the Gauss-Bonnet (GB) curvature invariant $R_{\rm GB}^2$, we study the existence and linear stability of neutron star (NS) solutions on a static and spherically symmetric background. For a scalar-GB coupling of the form $αξ(ϕ) R_{\rm GB}^2$, where $ξ$ is a function of the scalar field $ϕ$, the existence of linearly stable stars with a nontrivial scalar profile without instabilities puts an upper bound on the strength of the dimensionless coupling constant $|α|$. To realize maximum masses of NSs for a linear (or dilatonic) GB coupling $α_{\rm GB}ϕR_{\rm GB}^2$ with typical nuclear equations of state, we obtain the theoretical upper limit $\sqrt{|α_{\rm GB}|}<0.7~{\rm km}$. This is tighter than those obtained by the observations of gravitational waves emitted from binaries containing NSs. We also incorporate cubic-order scalar derivative interactions, quartic derivative couplings with nonminimal couplings to a Ricci scalar besides the scalar-GB coupling and show that NS solutions with a nontrivial scalar profile satisfying all the linear stability conditions are present for certain ranges of the coupling constants. In regularized 4-dimensional Einstein-GB gravity obtained from a Kaluza-Klein reduction with an appropriate rescaling of the GB coupling constant, we find that NSs in this theory suffer from a strong coupling problem as well as Laplacian instability of even-parity perturbations. We also study NS solutions with a nontrivial scalar profile in power-law $F(R_{\rm GB}^2)$ models, and show that they are pathological in the interior of stars and plagued by ghost instability together with the asymptotic strong coupling problem in the exterior of stars.