%0 Journal Article
%T Boson Stars: Early History and Recent Prospects
%A Eckehard W. Mielke
%A Franz E. Schunck
%J Physics
%D 1998
%I arXiv
%X Boson stars are descendants of the so-called geons of Wheeler, except that they are built from scalar particles instead of electromagnetic fields. If scalar fields exist in nature, such localized configurations kept together by their self-generated gravitational field can form within Einstein's general relativity. In the case of complex scalar fields, an absolutely stable branch of such non-topological solitons with conserved particle number exists. Our present surge stems from the speculative possibility that these compact objects could provide a considerable fraction of the non-baryonic part of dark matter. In any case, they may serve as a convenient "laboratory" for studying numerically rapidly rotating bodies in general relativity and the generation of gravitational waves.
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9801063v1