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    Periodic Gravitational Lensing with Oscillating Boson Stars

    Xing-Yu Yang (杨星宇)1,*, Tan Chen (陈坦)2,3,†, and Rong-Gen Cai (蔡荣根)4,‡

    • *Contact author: xingyuyang@kias.re.kr
    • †Contact author: chentan@bnu.edu.cn
    • ‡Contact author: caironggen@nbu.edu.cn

    Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 031403 – Published 17 July, 2026

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/6w3p-8ym2

    Abstract

    We show that oscillating (real-scalar) boson stars generically host an oscillating radial caustic. Sources near this caustic cross it every half period, thereby producing periodic caustic-crossing lensing. The resulting observables are phase locked to the lens oscillation: image-pair creation or annihilation, changing image morphology, achromatic photometric spikes, and astrometric motion. This signal provides a distinctive target for time-domain astronomy, and its detection would reveal an intrinsically time-dependent compact dark-sector object. Event-number estimates indicate a measurable discovery space with current astrometric and high-cadence photometric surveys, while null searches would constrain the abundance of such objects as dark matter. The predictions rely only on the dynamics of real-scalar condensates and extend naturally to self-interacting real scalars, including axionlike particles, and to ultralight vector bosons.

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