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arXiv · 2007.07438

Relaxation times for Bose-Einstein condensation in axion miniclusters

Kay Kirkpatrick·Anthony E. Mirasola·Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
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Abstract

We study the Bose condensation of scalar dark matter in the presence of both gravitational and self-interactions. Axions and other scalar dark matter in gravitationally bound miniclusters or dark matter halos are expected to condense into Bose-Einstein condensates called Bose stars. This process has been shown to occur through attractive self-interactions of the axion-like particles or through the field's self gravitation. We show that in the high-occupancy regime of scalar dark matter, the Boltzmann collision integral does not describe either gravitaitonal or self-interactions, and derive kinetic equations valid for these interactions. We use this formalism to compute relaxation times for the Bose-Einstein condensation, and find that condensation into Bose stars could occur within the lifetime of the universe. The self-interactions reduce the condensation time only when they are very strong.

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Kay Kirkpatrick, Anthony E. Mirasola, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein. 2020-07-15. Relaxation times for Bose-Einstein condensation in axion miniclusters. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.102.103012

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