Recent work has shown that scalar fields around black holes can form long-lived, quasistationary configurations surviving for cosmological time scales. Scalar fields thus cannot be discarded as viable candidates for dark matter halo models in galaxies around central supermassive black holes (SMBHs). One hypothesized formation scenario of most SMBHs at high redshift is the gravitational collapse of supermassive stars (SMSs) with masses of $\sim {10}^5{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$. Any such scalar field configurations must survive the gravitational collapse of a SMS in order to be a viable model of physical reality. To check for the postcollapse survival of these configurations and to follow the dynamics of the black hole–scalar field system we present in this paper the results of a series of numerical relativity simulations of gravitationally collapsing, spherically symmetric stars surrounded by self-gravitating scalar fields. We use an ideal fluid equation of state with adiabatic index $\mathrm{\Gamma }=4/3$ which is adequate to simulate radiation-dominated isentropic SMSs. Our results confirm the existence of oscillating, long-lived, self-gravitating scalar field configurations around nonrotating black holes after the collapse of the stars.

• Received 30 July 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.92.083001