  Void of any inherent structure in classical physics, the vacuum has revealed
to be incredibly crowded with all sorts of processes in relativistic quantum
physics. Yet, its direct effects are usually so subtle that its structure
remains almost as evasive as in classical physics. Here, in contrast, we report
on the discovery of a novel effect according to which the vacuum is compelled
to play an unexpected central role in an astrophysical context. We show that
the formation of relativistic stars may lead the vacuum energy density of a
quantum field to an exponential growth. The vacuum-driven evolution which would
then follow may lead to unexpected implications for astrophysics, while the
observation of stable neutron-star configurations may teach us much on the
field content of our Universe.
