Volume 261, number 3 PHYSICS LETTERS B 30 May 1991

On the possibility of Bose-star formation

I.I. T k a c h e v
Institute for Nuclear Research of the USSR Academy of Sciences,
60th October Anniversary Prospect 7a, SU- 117 312 Moscow, USSR t
and Instituto de Astronomla y Fisica del Espacio, Casilla de Correo 6 7, Sucursa128, 1428 Buenos Aires', Argentina

Received 3 December 1990

The relaxation time of a gravitationally bounded cloud of bosons is estimated for the case of a large phase-space density of
particles. The axionic mass and self-couplingrelaxation time are compatible to the age of the Universe if the escape velocity and
the mass in the core region satisfy the relation M< 108VSe/2floJ/4Mo. In the central part of such a cloud an axionic cosmic matter
with luminosity ~ 10 2v~/2fi-o~/4MG/yr will form. An upper bound on the self-couplingis obtained provided the mass distribu-
tion in galaxies is dominated by this kind of dark matter.

1. The dark matter of the universe still lacks iden-
tification. Amongst other candidates of different na-
ture the invisible axion [ l ] is a very promising one,
being at the same time the most attractive solution to
the strong CP problem [2 ]. The scale of axion inter-
actions is specified by fixing one u n k n o w n parame-
ter, f,, which is subject to astrophysical [3,4] and
cosmological [ 5-7 ] constraints. The strongest lower
b o u n d f~ > 1010 GeV is from the supernova SN 19 8 7A
[4 ]. The cosmological c o n s t r a i n t < 10 ~2GeV arises
from the requirement that the energy density stored
in initial coherent oscillations of the axionic field [ 5 ]
or produced by the decay of cosmic axion strings [ 7 ]
does not exceed the critical density (the constraint
from the decay o f a x i o n strings may be even stronger,
< 1 0 ~ GeV [ 6 ] ) . So, the main window is
10~<f, < 10 ~2 GeV. There is a second window near
,f~~ 10 6 GeV for axions whose coupling to the elec-
tron is much suppressed.
Above a temperature of the order of I GeV, the ax-
ion is a massless Goldstone field with vanishing ef-
fective potential. At late stages of the evolution of the
Universe it acquires a n o n - v a n i s h i n g potential en-
ergy density
g ( a ) ~ m~[1 - c o s ( a / ) 1, ( 1)
Permanent address.
and the coherent oscillations of the axionic field start.
The corresponding phase-space density of axions was
estimated to be very high, na >> 1047 [ 8 ]. A r o u n d the
redshift z = I 0 4 gravitational instability grows and
b o u n d objects of various sizes are formed. The en-
ergy density profile in galaxies can be approximated
by the following function:
m~,j t'r2
~-~ 4 n ( r ~ + r 2 ) , (2)
rc is the core radius where the energy density is ap-
proximately constant. At r>> r~. this gives a linear de-
pendence of the total mass, M ( r ) ~,'l/'plVr
2 2 r , and fiat
rotational curves with Vr~ const. The magnitude ofvr
characterizes the depth of the gravitational well vr ~
x / - q ) ~ v J x / 2 . The core radii that are being esti-
mated from rotational curves are typically rc ~ 1 kpc
and v~-~ 10 -3.
As one can see from eq. ( 1 ) the axions have an ef-
fective mass m , ~ m ~ / and an effective quartic self-
coupling). ~ (mJf~)4. The purpose of the present pa-
per is to estimate the relaxation time in a gravitation-
ally bound axionic cloud due to this self-coupling. The
conclusion is that in spite of the apparent smallness
of the self-coupling the effect could be significant as
a consequence of the large phase-space density of
particles. I present results both for the axionic rela-
tions between 2 and the mass as well as keeping 2 and

Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North-Holland) 289

Volume 261, number 3 PHYSICS LETTERS B
m arbitrary, bearing in m i n d the rather wide family
of light ( p s e u d o - G o l d s t o n e ) scalar particles similar
to the axion which are expected in various models
[9].
If the relaxation is efficient a Bose star could form.
The gravitational stability o f the static, cold Bose gas
has been widely discussed: for ideal bosons which
carry a conserved global charge [ 10], with inclusion
of self-coupling for them [ 11 ], and for pure neutral
ones like axions [12]. Technically, this p r o b l e m for
the real scalar field is more complicated, but the de-
pendence o f the mass o f the star upon 2 and m turns
out to be the same. However, as far as I know the
possibility of the formation o f a Bose star has been
considered only in ref. [ 13 ] where the cooling caused
by the processes aa--* a~'7 has been considered with the
negative conclusion that it is never i m p o r t a n t (the
effects of large phase-space density have not been
considered there).
The lifetime of the single-axion state exceeds well
the age o f the Universe. However, stimulated decays
a ~ ' are possible at large phase-space density and an
axionic Bose star (or any one, if the constituting pure
neutral bosons have a coupling with ~'~,) manifests it-
self as a radio source [ 12 ]. Moreover, after reaching
the critical density satisfying the condition [ 14 ]
D ~ m~v~ Rm~ fa 104u~_ _ f F 0 ' > l , (3)
where fl0 - = / 1 0 ~ GeV, all inflow of new axions will
be transformed into radiation. In what follows v~ or
v~ reflects the contribution of the axionic energy den-
sity to the depth of the gravitational well. C o n d i t i o n
(3) is valid for a distribution o f axions that is general
isotropic in m o m e n t a , b o u n d e d in the gravitational
well. The m a x i m a l luminosity which, in principle,
could be reached due to the incident flow of axions
from the halo region is L ~ Mz~v~. This is even larger
than the m a x i m u m luminosity of observed quasars.
If the configuration is not exactly spherically sym-
metric or isotropic in m o m e n t u m space, than the ra-
diation will be concentrated in beams. Typical quas-
ars (I mean here also active galactic nuclei as well as
the SS433 object) have relativistic jets which are very
narrow and cold (even contain emission lines). So,
it was proposed in refs. [ 12,14 ] that if it would be-
come possible to concentrate a considerably large in-
flow of axions on a very small spot, R < 109Ue.flO1 c m ,
290
30 May 1991
then it could be responsible for the activity of galactic
nuclei and quasars (with such features as matter ac-
celeration by maser b e a m s ) . Note that the mass o f
the critical (v~~ 1) Bose star is M c r i t ~ M 2 J m a ~
10-6Mof~0 and the amplification coefficient for it
would be D ~ 10~f7~. With a large inflow, the axions
decay earlier than the Bose star or black hole if the
case M > Mc~ gets a chance. However, it is unbeliev-
able that collisionless particles can be concentrated
on such a small region! With a sufficiently large self-
coupling this is possible, since due to the small ax-
ionic mass a Bose condensate has to form at galactic
densities, however, which value for 2 is sufficient?
2. Assume first that the self-interaction o f a x i o n s is
strong enough to establish equilibrium. Then the dis-
tribution function will be the Bose-Einstein one:
1
na =ncond + (4)
e x p ( E / O ) -- 1
It is a superposition o f two contributions: the Bose
condensate and thermal excitations. The m a x i m a l
value which the energy density of non-condensed ax-
ions can take is ethor ~rn]Vr3. C o m p a r i n g this to the
energy density profile in galactic halos, eq. ( 2 ) , one
gets that at r < Mel/rn a X/~'--~-- r, the energy density ega~
is larger than ether, and the usual conclusion would be
Eco,d = %al -- e~her. However, in the gravitational field
all Bose condensates are collected just in the center
o f the gravitational well and the axions cannot satu-
rate the energy density of the galactic halos at r < r,.
The mass o f this part o f the halo is
M ( r, ) ~ 10111~4c2( 30 eV/m~)2/23/2 , ( 5)
where v3-= vr/10 -3. Axions in thermal equilibrium
could not form galactic halos, since ma < 30 eV. (This
is a way to obtain also the restriction on the neutrino
mass since due to Fermi statistics for neutrinos n, ~< 1
always. The limit on the neutrino mass could be by
an order o f magnitude stronger if one assumes that
the energy density profile of dark matter coincides up
to the core radius with that one obtained from rota-
tional curves. )
The conclusion is: if axions constitute the main part
of dark matter in halos then their mean phase-space
density has to satisfy the inequality n, >> 1. Consid-
ering the collision integral for self-interaction o f ax-
ions we cannot neglect the Bose statistics factors
Volume 261, number 3 PHYSICS LETTERS B
dn(pl, x)
dt
-- 2poli I (2n)a34( ~ P~")[Mt-~12F[n]
d3pi
(6)
[ I (2n)32poi ,
where (suppressing the x - d e p e n d e n c e o f n )
F[n]- [l+n(Pl)] [1 +n(p2)]n(p'l)n(p'2)
- [l+n(p])][l+n(p'2)]n(pl)n(p2). (7)
Note, that the only static solution to eq. ( 6 ) is the
distribution function eq. (4). ! consider the collision
integral locally. F o r example, the transition in the
point x to the state Pl = 0 (Bose c o n d e n s a t e ) will
mean that the particle loses its angular m o m e n t u m
and is now on the energy level E = ' ( x ) .
3. Neglecting the detailed structure o f the kinetic
equation we can estimate the relaxation time as
follows:
ZRI__ d l n n 1 [Mfi 1262
7 ~ , (8)
dt 10 m~v~
where 6= [mJ(2n)3]fd3pn(p) is the energy den-
sity. Note that in the case n < 1 one gets rff ~ ~ vcy6/m,
where a is the corresponding cross section. W h a t is
new due to the Bose statistics at large phase-space
density, is the square law d e p e n d e n c e o f the relaxa-
tion time on the density o f particles. Note also that
eq. ( 8 ) has nothing to do with any kind o f large scale
coherence o f the field when the 6 2 dependences also
appear. This is just the consequence o f the fact that
n>>l.
I shall c o m p a r e the relaxation time to the free fall
time as well as to the age o f the universe. Let us mea-
sure for convenience the distance from the center o f
the gravitational well in terms o f the mass which is
contained within this scale. Substituting the energy
density profile eq. ( 2 ) into eq. ( 8 ) one finds that the
relaxation time is smaller than the free fall time tff
1 / x / ~ up to the scale
m <)t z/3 ( M p i v r / m ) 7/ 3 = M i , , (9)
where I assume for brevity that the core radius is
smaller than this scale. If this is so then the total mass
o f the particles which undergo condensation will be
> M~, and the process o f condensation will take place
30 May 1991
on the time-scale o f the violent relaxation o f the ini-
tial distribution and the energy flux o f the accreting
condensate will be L=Mplvr. 2 3 If the total mass o f the
axions in the core region does not satisfy inequality
( 9 ) , then ZR> tff everywhere in this cloud. Relation
( 9 ) is also valid for a gravitationally b o u n d cloud
without extended halo with M b e i n g its total mass and
vr the corresponding escape velocity. In what follows,
one has to understand all inequalities on M i n an out-
lined sense. Using standard axionic relations for 2 and
m one gets M I , ~ lx v(]5,,7/3
/r . tt~-
l 0 i/3 ~]1//
vlo-
The relaxation time is smaller than the age o f the
universe if
M < 3 109,~, l / 2 t 'ia ~t t t p [ tI tvl~] ' ~ 7 / 4 " 5 tl
/211d -- Izr (10)
r lvJQ =~v12, ~
which gives with axionic p a r a m e t e r s
M 2 , ~ 3 X 11~,
A8"5/2
vr
( - - 1 / 4 /IA
J10 ~vlC) -
(11)
The Bose condensation will occur in objects satisfy-
ing this inequality on a time-scale smaller than the
age o f the Universe. In equilibrium roughly half o f
the particles have to condense, the other half will ex-
cite to higher energy levels or escape from the cloud.
We can estimate the energy flux in the accreting con-
densates as L~M/'rR. This will be also the y-lumi-
nosity expected from the central spot. We can esti-
mate the lifetime o f this (bright) object as TR. We have
"rio ~ 10-2flo v/- 1M4, ( 12 )
L~O.3vrIO M8 3 f l o- - M1yro , (13)
where Ms ~M/IOSMo and rio =rR/101yr. We see
that it is possible to obtain, in principle, a luminosity
and lifetime c o m p a t i b l e to quasar characteristics. In
o r d e r to get an axionic maser [ 12,14 ] the degree o f
concentration o f the collisionless stage o f the evolu-
tion o f particles should be weaker by six orders o f
magnitude in comparison with eq. (3). But this is still
a rather strong concentration (the condition is more
impressive in terms o f length R < 1 0 - 3 x / ~ p c ) and
with a flat spectrum of initial perturbations one hardly
predicts a sufficient n u m b e r o f such objects in the
visible part o f the universe. However, a few remarks
are in order.
(i) The initial spectrum o f cosmological perturba-
tions could have more power on smaller scales and,
for example, inflationary universe models are capa-
291
Volume 261, number 3
ble to predict [ 15 ] a peaked or power-law spectrum
for isothermal perturbations.
(ii) There is no r o o m to make condition ( 3 )
weaker since a coupling to '/is strongly restricted in
any model by stellar evolution arguments. On the
contrary, up to now there was no restriction on self-
coupling. Moreover, we can get it assuming that the
energy density distribution of axionic-like d a r k mat-
ter in galaxies coincides with that one obtained from
rotational curves, eq. (2), i.e. rc ~ 1 kpc and Vr~ 10-- 3
for the dark matter distribution also. Then the
condition
2<10 28(m/10 3eV)7/2
has to be satisfied otherwise the center o f mass o f
every galactic nuclei will shine with the luminosity of
the brightest quasar. ( I f the particle has the coupling
to ~'7 being much suppressed in comparison to the ax-
ionic one, then, when violating (14), the dark matter
contribution to the rotational curves will be altered
and a black hole will form in the center.) As far as
the scale ( 1 1 ) is not so far from a reasonable one, it
is enough to increase the ratio 2/IYt 7/2, say, by a fac-
tor 10 ~3 with respect to the standard axionic relation
in order to push M2, towards typical parameters of
galactic cores. In order to check this possibility one
could c o m p a r e the specific dependence of the lumi-
nosity L ~ v4/r 2, eq. (13), with the observable char-
acteristics of the cores of active galactic nuclei and
their luminosity. If this is not possible for the invisi-
ble axion, it could be true for one o f the majority of
hypothetical light ( p s e u d o - G o l d s t o n e ) scalar parti-
cles [ 9 ].
(iii) In the previous paragraph (ii) the assump-
tion was used that the core region for the dark matter
distribution does not satisfy condition ( 10 ) and then
2 was increased up to values at which relaxation is
efficient for a typical galactic core. Violent relaxation
in a self-gravitating system leads to the Lynden-Bell
distribution function n ~ exp ( - 2 E / v 2), where E =
v2/2 + ~ ( x ) is the dimensionless energy. The distri-
bution is the same for particles with different masses
in one gravitational well. Note that the energy den-
sity profile eq. (2) with r e = 0 is the exact solution to
the equations o f gravitational equilibrium with this
distribution. So, rc is a subject to the initial condi-
tions. However, the non-linear stage o f the collapse
of cold dark matter is not well understood. There are
292
PHYSICS LETTERS B 30 May 1991
even opinions [16] that in a stationary distribution
the core region is practically zero with the gravita-
tional potential remaining regular. Consensus about
ref. [16] has not been reached but we can assume
that dark matter distributions with a core region sat-
isfying condition ( 1 1 ) are not improbable. It does not
mean that the core region of the whole galaxy satis-
fies this condition, but there could be dark matter
density peaks of smaller scales (with total mass larger
than 1142.) for which this is true. Substituting then
eq. ( 12 ) into eq. ( 13 ) we get
(14) L ~ 1O- 2L'Sr/Zflo I/4 2-103/4 MG . ( 15 )
yr
W i t h axionic p a r a m e t e r s we could reach the charac-
teristics of the brightest quasars with the ( u n n a t u r a l )
assumption vr~ 1 only. However, with vr~ 10 - 4 this
gives the luminosity of the smallest mysterious com-
pact radio sources like Sgr A*.
4. Axions were produced initially in a state with
very high phase-space density. Those are axions both
from the cosmological oscillations a = A sin (m~ t) and
p r o d u c e d via the decay o f axionic strings, because for
them n, >> T,.o T m3 / m ~4 ~ 104f 40, where Tcq~ 1 eV is
the temperature of equal m a t t e r and radiation den-
sities, Tm~ 1 GeV is the t e m p e r a t u r e at which the ax-
ionic mass switches on. The point is that during the
collisionless evolution the p h a s e - s p a c e density is
conserved. We used, however, in the above estima-
tions a distribution spread out in the gravitational
well, n a ~ e / v , -3m a 4, which is much smaller than the
cosmological phase-space density. The Lynden-Bell
distribution is actually a coarse grained distribution.
The fine grained one will give a very complicated pic-
ture o f well-mixed axionic flows, each one with the
same (conserved) phase-space density. So, we have
to analyse to what extent this can change the collision
integral.
Suppose for simplicity, that in a given point x any
flow fills with constant phase-space density n = n . . . .
a cubic cell o f linear size By, and those cells are dis-
tributed r a n d o m l y inside a sphere v< vs. Then the
term in the collision integral eq. ( 6 ) proportional to
n(p~ )n(p'~ )n(P'2) gives
rR I ~ IMfi 12man 2 (51))3 N ( S v ) 2 N *, (16)
L~r
Volume 261, number 3 PHYSICS LETTERS B
w h e r e N ~ e / ( 6 v ) 3 n is t h e t o t a l n u m b e r o f o c c u p i e d
cells a n d N * ~ e/(~Sz,)2v,.n is t h e n u m b e r o f o c c u p i e d
cells w h i c h i n t e r s e c t s t h e e q u a t o r i a l p l a n e , T h i s gives
t h e s a m e e x p r e s s i o n , eq. ( 8 ) . T h e t e r m p r o p o r -
t i o n a l to n(p2)n(p'j)n(p'2) gives a c o n t r i b u t i o n
[r/ . . . . /n(pl)](~)Z'/Z'F)3ZR I w h i c h i m p l i e s t h a t a
s h a r p l y p e a k e d d i s t r i b u t i o n o f flows relaxes t o a
b r o a d e r d i s t r i b u t i o n o n a t i m e - s c a l e w h i c h is m u c h
s m a l l e r t h a n ZR, eq. ( 8 ) .
5, W h e t h e r a x i o n i c m a s e r s are r e s p o n s i b l e for s o m e
q u a s a r - l i k e p h e n o m e n a o r not, we c a n c o n c l u d e t h a t
for s o m e r e a l i s t i c c o n d i t i o n s t h e y c o u l d exist in o u r
U n i v e r s e . S e a r c h e s for t h e m w o u l d n o t o n l y c o m p e t e
with terrestrial axion search experiments but could
p r o v i d e also u n i q u e i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t t h e s p e c t r u m
of primordial (isothermal) density perturbations on
s m a l l scales, a b o u t t h e n o n - l i n e a r stage o f t h e col-
lapse o f c o l d d a r k m a t t e r a n d a b o u t t h e a x i o n i c self-
c o u p l i n g . I f t h e r a t i o of 2 / m 7/2 for a n a x i o n - l i k e d a r k
m a t t e r p a r t i c l e is i n c r e a s e d w i t h r e s p e c t to t h a t o f t h e
s t a n d a r d a x i o n t h e n t h e c o r r e s p o n d i n g m a s e r s be-
c o m e m o r e w i d e s p r e a d o b j e c t s in t h e U n i v e r s e .
I a m ve~" g r a t e f u l to E. B e r t s c h i n g e r , R.
B r a n d e n b e r g e r , R. D a v i s , J. F r i e m a n , M. F u k u g i t a ,
M. G l e i s e r , D. H a r a r i , L.A. K o f m a n , V.A. K u z m i n ,
S.F. S h a n d a r i n , D. Seckel, P. S i k i v i e a n d E. W e i n b e r g
for h e l p f u l d i s c u s s i o n s . I w o u l d also like to t h a n k
P r o f e s s o r M. C a s t a g n i n o a n d t h e R e l a t i v i t y g r o u p o f
I A F E , B u e n o s A i r e s w h e r e t h i s w o r k was c o m p l e t e d ,
for the kind hospitality.
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