Tidal deformability and I-Love-Q relations for gravastars with polytropic thin shells

The moment of inertia, the spin-induced quadrupole moment, and the tidal Love number of neutron-star and quark-star models are related through some relations which depend only mildly on the stellar equation of state. These “I-Love-Q” relations have important implications for astrophysics and gravitational-wave astronomy. An interesting problem is whether similar relations hold for other compact objects and how they approach the black hole limit. To answer these questions, here we investigate the deformation properties of a large class of thin-shell gravastars, which are exotic compact objects that do not possess an event horizon nor a spacetime singularity. Working in a small-spin and small-tidal field expansion, we calculate the moment of inertia, the quadrupole moment, and the (quadrupolar electric) tidal Love number of gravastars with a polytropic thin shell. The I-Love-Q relations of a thin-shell gravastar are drastically different from those of an ordinary neutron star. The Love number and quadrupole moment for less compact models have the opposite sign relative to those of ordinary neutron stars, and the I-Love-Q relations continuously approach the black hole limit. We consider a variety of polytropic equations of state for the matter shell and find no universality in the I-Love-Q relations. However, we cannot deny the possibility that, similarly to the neutron-star case, an approximate universality might emerge for a limited class of equations of state. Finally, we discuss how a measurement of the tidal deformability from the gravitational-wave detection of a compact-binary inspiral can be used to constrain exotic compact objects like gravastars.