Boson stars in massive dilatonic gravity

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a massive dilaton scalar field influences the structure and mass of boson stars within scalar-tensor gravity theories, revealing that the dilaton mass affects star properties slightly compared to general relativity.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of boson stars in massive dilatonic gravity, highlighting the sensitivity of their structure to the dilaton mass and potential form.

Findings

Boson star masses are close to those in general relativity.

Star structure is sensitive to the ratio of boson to dilaton mass.

Structure depends mainly on the dilaton potential's mass term.

Abstract

We study equilibrium configurations of boson stars in the framework of a class scalar-tensor theories of gravity with massive gravitational scalar (dilaton). In particular we investigate the influence of the mass of the dilaton on the boson star structure. We find that the masses of the boson stars in presence of dilaton are close to those in general relativity and they are sensitive to the ratio of the boson mass to the dilaton mass within a typical few percent. It turns out also that the boson star structure is mainly sensitive to the mass term of the dilaton potential rather to the exact form of the potential.