Gravitational Lensing by Compact Objects in the Galactic Center:Can we exclude or detect a boson star?

by Dr Amitai Bin-Nun (University of Pennsylvania)

Thursday 17 Mar 2011, 10:30 → 11:30 Asia/Kolkata

AG-66 (Colaba Campus)

Over the last few decades, it has been increasingly clear that there is an extremely compact object at Sgr A* in the center of the galaxy. Some have looked at the theoretical gravitational lensing properties of this object, particularly on stars orbiting the galactic center. In this talk, I explore the possibility that a "boson star" or compact collection of scalar particles, is responsible for the large mass at Sgr A*. This possibility cannot be ruled out by observation of dynamical processes because of the compactness of a boson star. However, I argue that the gravitational lensing properties of a boson star have unique properties and their presence or absence would be strong evidence for or against a boson star in the galactic center.