2018/06/30 by James Widdicombe, James Y. Widdicombe, Thomas Helfer +2
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Axion #Binary black hole #Black hole (networking) #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark matter #Gravitational wave #LIGO #Particle physics #Physics #Primordial black hole #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Stars #Universe #astro-ph.CO #gr-qc #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2018/10/005
arxiv created 2018/08/15 · openalex publication_date 2018/10/03 · arxiv updated 2018/10/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Axions and axion-like particles are compelling candidates for the missing dark matter of the universe. As they undergo gravitational collapse, they can form compact objects such as axion stars or even black holes. In this paper, we study the formation and distribution of such objects. First, we simulate the formation of compact axion stars using numerical relativity with aspherical initial conditions that could represent the final stages of axion dark matter structure formation. We show that the final states of such collapse closely follow the known relationship of initial mass and axion decay constant f a . Second, we demonstrate with a toy model how this information can be used to scan a model density field to predict the number densities and masses of such compact objects. In addition to being detectable by the LIGO/VIRGO gravitational wave interferometer network for axion mass of 10 −9 < m a < 10 −11 eV, we show using peak statistics that for f a < 0.2 M pl , there exists a "mass gap" between the masses of axion stars and black holes formed from collapse.