[PDF][PDF] Gravitational scattering of solitonic boson stars: Analytics vs Numerics

T Damour, T Jain, U Sperhake - Physical Review Letters, 2026 - APS
T Damour, T Jain, U Sperhake
Physical Review Letters, 2026•APS
We study the scattering of two boson stars by comparing four sequences (at fixed energy
and varying impact parameter) of numerical relativity simulations to an effective-one-body
analytic description, taking into account both gravitational effects (point-mass and tidal) and
short-range scalar-field interactions. We obtain excellent agreement between analytical and
numerical results, exhibiting the importance of short-range scalar-field interactions for small
impact parameters. Our Letter paves the way toward analytic waveform templates of exotic …
We study the scattering of two boson stars by comparing four sequences (at fixed energy and varying impact parameter) of numerical relativity simulations to an effective-one-body analytic description, taking into account both gravitational effects (point-mass and tidal) and short-range scalar-field interactions. We obtain excellent agreement between analytical and numerical results, exhibiting the importance of short-range scalar-field interactions for small impact parameters. Our Letter paves the way toward analytic waveform templates of exotic compact object binaries.
American Physical Society