Institution: | a Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Zurich, Schönberggasse 9, CH-8001, Zurich, Switzerland b Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chalmers University of Technology, S-412 96, Göteborg, Sweden |
Abstract: | We consider charged boson stars and study their effect on the structure of the vacuum. For very compact particle like “stars”, with constituent mass m* close to the Planck mass mPl, i.e. m2* = O( m2Pl), we argue that there is electric charge Zc, which, primarily, is due to the formation of a pion condensate (Zc 0.5 ?1e, where is the fine structure constant and e is the electric charge of the positron). If the charge of the “star” is larger than Zc we find numerical evidence for a complete screening indicating a limiting charge for a very compact object. There is also a less efficient competing charge screening mechanism due to spontaneous electron-positron pair creation in which case Zc ?1e. Astrophysical and cosmological abundances of charged compact boson stars are briefly discussed in terms of dark matter. |