Scalar field confinement as a model for accreting systems

TL;DR

This paper explores scalar field configurations as a simplified model for black hole accretion, demonstrating their localization and potential to mimic accreting shells around black holes through numerical solutions.

Contribution

It introduces a method to localize scalar fields in General Relativity using a coordinate-dependent potential, providing a new approach to model accreting systems.

Findings

Scalar fields can be confined around black holes in numerical models

The confined scalar field exhibits simple harmonic time dependence

The model offers a simplified framework for studying accretion phenomena

Abstract

We investigate the possibility to localize scalar field configurations as a model for black hole accretion. We analyze and resolve difficulties encountered when localizing scalar fields in General Relativity. We illustrate this ability with a simple spherically symmetric model which can be used to study features of accreting shells around a black hole. This is accomplished by prescribing a scalar field with a coordinate dependent potential. Numerical solutions to the Einstein-Klein-Gordon equations are shown, where a scalar filed is indeed confined within a region surrounding a black hole. The resulting spacetime can be described in terms of simple harmonic time dependence.