On the Bondi accretion of a self-interacting complex scalar field

Abstract Scalar fields with a global U(1) symmetry often appear in cosmology and astrophysics. We study the spherically-symmetric, stationary accretion of such a classical field onto a Schwarzschild black hole in the test-field approximation. Thus, we consider the relativistic Bondi accretion beyond a simplified perfect-fluid setup. We focus on the complex scalar field with canonical kinetic term and with a generic quartic potential that either preserves the U(1) symmetry or exhibits spontaneous symmetry breaking. It is well known that in the lowest order in gradient expansion the dynamics of such a scalar field is well approximated by a perfect superfluid. We demonstrate that going beyond this approximation systematically reduces the accretion rate with respect to the perfect fluid case. Hence, black holes can provide a way to distinguish a perfect fluid from its ultraviolet completion in form of the complex scalar field.