Self-gravitating Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) have been proposed in various astrophysical contexts, including Bose-stars and BEC dark matter halos. These systems are described by a combination of the Gross-Pitaevskii and Poisson equations (the GPP system). In the analysis of these hypothetical objects, the Thomas-Fermi (TF) approximation is widely used. This approximation is based on the assumption that in the presence of a large number of particles, the kinetic term in the Gross-Pitaevskii energy functional can be neglected, yet it is well known that this assumption is violated near the condensate surface. We also show that the total energy of the self-gravitating condensate in the TF-approximation is positive. The stability of a self-gravitating system is dependent on the total energy being negative. Therefore, the TF-approximation is ill suited to formulate initial conditions in numerical simulations. As an alternative, we offer an approximate solution of the full GPP system.
We determine the mass-radius relation of self-gravitating Bose-Einstein condensates with an attractive $-1/r$ external potential created by a central mass. Following our previous work [P.H. Chavanis, Phys. Rev. D 84, 043531 (2011)], we use an analytical approach based on a Gaussian ansatz. We consider the case of noninteracting bosons as well as the case of self-interacting bosons with a repulsive or an attractive self-interaction. These results may find application in the context of dark matter halos made of self-gravitating Bose-Einstein condensates. In that case, the central mass may mimic …
We study the Jeans mass-radius relation of Bose-Einstein condensate dark matter in Newtonian gravity. We show at a general level that it is similar to the mass-radius relation of Bose-Einstein condensate dark matter halos [P.H. Chavanis, Phys. Rev. D {\bf 84}, 043531 (2011)]. Bosons with a repulsive self-interaction generically evolve from the Thomas-Fermi regime to the noninteracting regime as the Universe expands. In the Thomas-Fermi regime, the Jeans radius remains approximately constant while the Jeans mass decreases. In the noninteracting regime, the Jeans radius increases while the Jeans…
Many-body gravitating quantum systems with Bose-Einstein condensates and dipolar analogue
Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (INO-CNR)（意大利国家光学研究所，意大利国家研究委员会）；Physics Department, University of Naples Federico II（那不勒斯费德里科二世大学物理系）；European Laboratory for Nonlinear Spectroscopy (LENS)（欧洲非线性光谱学实验室）；Physics Department, University of Florence（佛罗伦萨大学物理系）
The Thomas-Fermi model is extended at finite temperature, to describe the gravitational phase transition occurring in massive fermionic systems in a general-relativistic framework. It is shown that, when a nondegenerate fermionic gas (for $N < N_{OV}$, where $N_{OV}$ is the Oppenheimer-Volkoff limit) is cooled down below a critical temperature, a condensed phase emerges and the gravitational collapse is prevented by quantum mechanics. If $N > N_{OV}$, by contrast, the system is destined to collapse towards a Black Hole because no equilibrium states exist.
We analyze the rotation curves that correspond to a Bose--Einstein Condensate (BEC) type halo surrounding a Schwarzschild--type black hole to confront predictions of the model upon observations of galaxy rotation curves. We model the halo as a Bose--Einstein condensate in terms of a massive scalar field that satisfies a Klein--Gordon equation with a self--interaction term. We also assume that the bosonic cloud is not self--gravitating. To model the halo, we apply a simple form of the Thomas--Fermi approximation that allows us to extract relevant results with a simple and concise procedure. Usi…
We consider a gravitational plane wave passing through a galactic dark matter halo composed of weakly self-interacting, self-gravitating, Bose-Einstein condensate of ultralight particles. Treating the gravitational wave as a time dependent perturbation, we study energy transfer between the gravitational wave and the Bose-Einstein condensate by applying linear response theory to a non-uniform condensate described by the Bogoliubov-de Gennes theory, and compute the fractional loss in gravitational wave energy. We apply our results to investigate the extent to which this loss effects the estimati…
We discuss the analogy between a classical scalar field with a self-interacting potential, in a curved spacetime described by a quasi--bounded state, and a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate. In this context, we compare the Klein-Gordon equation with the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Moreover, the introduction of a curved background spacetime endows, in a natural way, an equivalence to the Gross-Pitaevskii equation with an explicit confinement potential. The curvature also induces a position dependent self-interaction parameter. We exploit this analogy by means of the Thomas-Fermi approximation, co…
