Periodic Gravitational Lensing with Oscillating Boson Stars
Abstract
We show that oscillating (real-scalar) boson stars generically host an oscillating radial caustic. Sources near this caustic cross it every half period, thereby producing periodic caustic-crossing lensing. The resulting observables are phase locked to the lens oscillation: image-pair creation or annihilation, changing image morphology, achromatic photometric spikes, and astrometric motion. This signal provides a distinctive target for time-domain astronomy, and its detection would reveal an intrinsically time-dependent compact dark-sector object. Event-number estimates indicate a measurable discovery space with current astrometric and high-cadence photometric surveys, while null searches would constrain the abundance of such objects as dark matter. The predictions rely only on the dynamics of real-scalar condensates and extend naturally to self-interacting real scalars, including axionlike particles, and to ultralight vector bosons.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Physical Review Letters
- Publisher
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Volume
- 137
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 031403–031403
- Publication date
- 18 June 2026
- Language
- EN