Global View of Axion Stars with (Nearly) Planck-Scale Decay Constants

Abstract

We show that axion stars formed from axions with nearly Planck-scale decay constants $f$ are unstable to decay, and are unlikely to have phenomenological consequences. More generally, we show how results at smaller $f$ cannot be naively extrapolated to $f=\mathcal{O}(M_P)$ as, contrary to conventional wisdom, gravity and special relativity can both become relevant in the same regime. We clarify the rate of decay by reviewing and extending previous work on oscillons and axion stars, which imply a fast decay rate even for so-called dilute states at large $f$.

arXiv comment15 pages, 8 figures, 2 appendices. References added; updated to match published PRD version

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• What can a GNOME do? Search targets for the Global Network of Optical Magnetometers for Exotic physics searches
• Testing multiflavored ULDM models with SPARC
• Using atomic clocks to detect local dark matter halos