Boson star-black hole binaries: Initial data and head-on collisions
Published in Physical Review D, 2026
DOI: 10.1103/9m6m-bvc6 | arXiv:2604.15240 | INSPIRE-HEP
Abstract: We present a numerical-relativity study of comparable-mass boson star–black hole (BS-BH) head-on collisions, focusing on both initial-data construction and gravitational-wave (GW) phenomenology. We show that plain superposition can strongly perturb the BS core, leading to large constraint violations and unphysical radial oscillations. To remedy this problem, we introduce a one-body conformal-factor correction and find that it substantially suppresses these artifacts. Using the improved initial data, we analyze GW emission from equal- and unequal-mass BS-BH binaries and compare with matched BS-BS and BH-BH baselines. For equal masses, the BS-BH radiated energy increases with BS compactness and approaches the BH-BH limit for highly compact stars. For unequal masses, the \(q = 2\) BS-BH configuration in our sample radiates slightly more GW energy than its matched BH-BH counterpart.
Recommended citation: Zhuan Ning, “Boson star-black hole binaries: Initial data and head-on collisions,” Phys. Rev. D 114, 044060 (2026).
Download Paper