Boson stars with repulsive self-interactions

Abstract

The properties of compact stars made of massive bosons with a repulsive self-interaction mediated by vector mesons are studied within the mean-field approximation and general relativity. We demonstrate that there exists a scaling property for the mass-radius curve for arbitrary boson masses and interaction strengths which results in a universal mass-radius relation. The radius remains nearly constant for a wide range of compact star masses. The maximum stable mass and radius of boson stars are determined by the interaction strength and scale with the Landau mass and radius. Both the maximum mass and the corresponding radius increase linearly with the interaction strength so that they can be radically different compared to the other families of boson stars where interactions are ignored.